Best Practices Webinar Series on Index Blocks
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at 3:00pm -- Joel Dixon, Amy Liu
In a recent blog posting on page rendering times, one of our support engineers looked at several key areas that impact optimal performance when publishing with Cascade Server. Among these topics we found one particular area seems to significantly impact a majority of client sites, call it the 800-pound gorilla in the room, Index Blocks.
Although Cascade Server Index Blocks unlock great flexibility and functionality for content reuse, their misuse can also be one of the common factors that can affect performance. Examples abound but here are some things to consider:
- Look before you leap. Some common areas where Index Blocks are most frequently used and/or abused include the Homepage, the Sitemap, Newsrooms, and dynamically managed navigation elements.
- Different strokes for different folks. For existing users of Cascade Server, it is already clear that almost any dynamic functionality can be implemented in the system through a combination of Index Blocks and Formats. However, like most scenarios in life, there are multiple ways to accomplish the same solution so it is essential that we consider all of the possible options to make sure it will optimize your Cascade Server performance and experience, even if that solution takes more time up front to plan and implement.
- Inspect what you Expect. Even if your current implementation is working, consider revisiting the implementation methods of certain areas to ensure that they are scalable solutions which can handle the anticipated amount of new content that will undoubtedly be created by users of Cascade Server. Oftentimes, the initial environment in which the Index Blocks and Formats were created does not accurately reflect the same environment once the system is in production.
Since our team understands the good, the bad and the ugly that can arise with the use of Index Blocks and other Cascade Server functionality, we decided to start a scheduled webinar series on “Cascade Server Best Practices”. Through these topic-focused webinars we hope to present a variety of functionality available within Cascade Server, highlight new features that clients may not be utilizing, discuss implementation best practices, showcase many different use cases, and provide opportunities for clients to ask additional questions on each webinar topic.
We will host the first webinar in this series on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 2PM EDT and will focus on the use of Index Blocks. Included in this webinar will be more detail about the implementation suggestions mentioned earlier in this blog. We will also look through some examples using Index Blocks, including Navigations and News Sections.
Like all our webinars, this is a free event. A member of the Hannon Hill team will be leading this presentation and available to answer questions related to this topic as well. We hope you’ll make plans to attend. Please sign up to reserve your spot!
Update: Please see the video of this webinar here!
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