Below are the blog entries for May 2007
Why Cascade Server Is BYOD (Bring Your Own Database)
By Blaine Herman
Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 9:48am
A lot of software companies build their own proprietary databases to go along with their content management systems. We don’t do this, and it’s not because we’re lazy. Instead, we believe that embedding a proprietary database into a CMS takes away the client’s ability to choose how and where their data is stored.
Since Cascade Server works with any of the industry’s best standard relational databases – MySQL 4.1/5.0, MS SQL Server 2000 SP4/2005, and Oracle 9i/10g, we can provide for a vast amount of flexibility for data storage. It also allows our clients to take advantage of existing skill sets, rather than having to learn a whole new database on top of the CMS learning curve – which would mean additional training and costs.
Another factor to consider while we're on the topic is – what would happen should your organization decide (for whatever reason) to stop using the CMS that you select. What is your exit strategy? If you chose a CMS that utilizes standard relational databases, you really don't have to be concerned with an exit strategy; 100% of your content is stored in a database, which you'll have access to long after you stop using the CMS. Alternatively, if you chose a CMS with an embedded database, once you stop using the CMS, you'll lose access to the database. I expect that a vendor with a proprietary database will tell you that you'll be able to easily extract information from their database. If this is the case, I would recommend that you ask for documentation outlining just how easy this process is. Confirming that you'll have access to your content, post CMS, would mitigate the chances of your organization being in a situation where your content is held hostage.
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What We Really Mean by 'Flexibility'
By David Cummings
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 4:26pm
One of the most exciting things about working with clients is when we find out that someone is using our product in ways we never expected. Last month I attended the Gilbane Conference in San Francisco and sat in on a presentation by Dave Dumas from FileMaker, Inc. FileMaker is exciting because they are doing something we haven’t seen before – using Cascade Server to produce JSON objects (JavaScript Object Notation).
JSON has really become popular because of the advent of AJAX on websites. Although it can’t replace XML in most cases, there are some scenarios in which it just works a whole lot better. Since XML is self-describing, XML files have to be very verbose. JSON, on the other hand, is a very concise format because it’s purely data – typically in a multi-dimensional array or grid, and that makes it a lot faster.
Because a JSON document is just a data set in a grid, you have to know what the column in the grid means, or you don’t know what the data means. What FileMaker is doing is using Cascade Server to manage content that’s published to JSON, and then using JavaScript that reads the JSON and populates the content on the website. Although they still use traditional HTML on the site as well for SEO purposes, using JSON (and AJAX) for certain content makes the FileMaker website extremely responsive because the whole page doesn’t need to be refreshed for every action.
We’re really pleased with what FileMaker has been able to accomplish with the CMS. Because it’s such a flexible system, Cascade Server can be used to meet all kinds of website requirements. If anyone is interested in learning more about how our CMS integrates with various technologies, please contact us. Or, if you’re a current client using Cascade Server in a unique way, we want to hear about that too.
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Hannon Hill’s Newsletter Gets an Upgrade
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Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 at 1:00pm
We’ve had a few people contact us asking why they had to re-opt in for our newsletter. The short answer is that we wanted to make sure you still want to hear from us! We recently changed our email marketing system. Since we’ve collected such a mass of emails from our newsletter opt-in throughout the years, we decided to take the opportunity – as we import contacts from one system to the other – to double check with each of you to ensure you are only getting the emails you want to get. Nothing is more annoying than a cluttered email inbox, right?
So, if you’ve received an email from us and you want to keep receiving emails (we send a newsletter update once a month), click on the link in the email and you’ll be good to go.
If you don’t want any more email from us, no problem! Simply do nothing, and you’ll automatically be unsubscribed.
If you didn’t get an email and you want to join our newsletter, it’s easy! Simply sign up here, or check the ‘newsletter’ box when you download any of our white papers.
You can also browse through our past newsletters to see what you might have missed.
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