Introduction to Content Management with CMX Services
Contents
Services
All content within CMX resides inside Services. The type of content managed by a given Service, as well as the configuration settings available for that Service, is governed by the Plugin type. Plugins which are concerned with content delivery include:
- Ringtone Plugin, for delivering RTTTL ringtones;
- Logo Plugin, for delivering Nokia logo and picture messages;
- WAP Push Plugin, for delivering multimedia content including images, polyphonic ringtones and Java games.
Services are created as follows:
- Click on "Services" in the main CMX menu (the blue bar on the left hand side);
- Click on "Create new Service" at the bottom of the page;
- Enter a name for the service and specify the Plugin and SMS account before clicking "Save";
- Find the name of the newly created Service in the list and click on it. You can now edit the settings for the Service.
Keywords and Promoters
To make the content held in a Service available for delivery, inbound SMS must be routed to the Service by means of a Keyword. Quite simply, Keywords are used to determine which Service an SMS should be routed to by matching the beginning of the SMS against a specified word or other sequence of characters. For revenue tracking purposes, Keywords can be grouped together under Promoters. This is useful when advertising multiple Keywords in the same publication, or combining all the Keywords used by a particular reseller. Promoters can be issued with a login to CMX with which they are able to view statistics relating to their particular Keywords.
Promoters are created as follows:
- Click on "Promoters" in the main menu;
- Click on "Create new Promoter" at the bottom of the page;
- Enter a name for the Promoter and click "Save".
- Click on "Keywords" in the main menu;
- Click on "Create new Keyword" at the bottom of the page;
- Enter the character sequence which messages should be matched against, and specify the Short Code (or Virtual Mobile Number), Promoter and destination Service, then click "Save";
- Clicking on the name of the Keyword in the list brings up the configuration options for the Service associated with the Keyword. To edit the Keyword itself (to change the word or destination Service, for example), use the "Edit" link.
Content Browser
The central place for performing content management tasks in CMX is the Content Browser, accessed from the "Content Browser" link in the main menu.
The steps for uploading new content are:
- Click on "Upload new Content" at the top of the page;
- Select the Service in which the content should be stored and click "Continue". Note that the Plugin managing the Service dictates which types of content may be uploaded;
- If a WAP Push Service was chosen in the previous step, specify the type of content being uploaded and click "Continue". This is not necessary for Ringtone or Logo services since they can only contain one type of content;
- Enter the order code for the content and click on "Browse…" to locate the file which will be uploaded. Complete any content-specific settings (name, target device, etc) on this page and click "Continue" to actually upload the file;
- The main Content Browser page is displayed again. The steps above can be repeated to upload additional content in the same way.
At any stage during the upload process, clicking on "Batch Upload" reconfigures the system to expect a ZIP file containing several content items rather than a single one. The order code for each item can either be derived from the filename of the content, or an automatically generated number with a given prefix and starting point.
Multiple device-specific versions of a piece of content may be uploaded in a single batch if a simple naming convention, containing both the order code and the HTTP user agent mask of the target device, is adhered to. Files should be named "<order-code>-<user-agent-mask>.<file-extension>" (examples might be "1234-Nokia6600%.jpg" or "5678-SAMSUNG%.mmf"). With the "use filename" option selected for order code, and "autodetect" selected for target device, the batch upload process automatically matches up content versions by order code. ZIP file batches up to 2.5MB in size may be uploaded using this method.
When viewing content, the Content Browser uses a filter-based approach to determining which content is displayed. The "Filters" tab shows which Services content is being drawn from and which types of content are shown. To change these settings, tick the checkboxes next to the Services or Media Types concerned and use the ">" or "<" buttons to move them between the "Hide" and "Show" columns. To show or hide everything, use the ">>" or "<<" buttons.
Once the appropriate settings have been specified in the "Filters" tab, click on either the "List View" or "Thumbnail View" tabs to display the content. The List View shows a table of the selected content and its attributes, which can be sorted by clicking on any of the column headings. The Thumbnail View shows a grid of thumbnails for the selected content, which is especially useful when dealing with images. In either view, clicking on a content item brings up a page showing the full details for that item. With WAP Push content, a list of device-specific versions is displayed under the "Purposed Content", and additional versions can be uploaded using the "Upload Purposed Content" section.
Content Aggregation
Since every Keyword can only point to one Service, it seems as if Ringtone, Logo and WAP Push content must all be advertised under different Keywords. To sidestep this inconvenience, the Content Aggregation Plugin can be used. Creating a Service of this type allows a single Keyword to draw content from several Services, as follows:
- Create a Content Aggregation Service using the same procedure as content-based Services;
- Click on the Service name in the list of Services to bring up the settings page;
- Tick the checkboxes corresponding to the Services from which content should be used, specify a message to be sent when none of the Services contains content with the specified order code, and click "Save";
- Create a new Keyword or redirect existing ones to point at the new Service. Now content from each of the selected "aggregated" Services is available under the single Keyword.
