Overview

Welcome to the webCOMAND Feature Tour.

webCOMAND is a robust web content management system that allows COMAND Solutions to build virtually any type of website, intranet or extranet solution that is easy for our clients to update and manage themselves.

webCOMAND provides features to:

• Build unique website, intranet, extranet and other published solutions.
• Make it easy for individuals and organizations to control, update and manage web content themselves.

Web Interface

Access webCOMAND through a simple, easy-to-use web interface compatible with all popular web browsers.  No special software or plugins are necessary.

• A familiar folder hierarchy is displayed on the left for fast access to website, intranet and extranet content.
• Simple web forms make it easy to edit content with familiar text boxes, drop-down options, selection lists and rich-text (aka WYSIWYG) editors.
• Content lists summarize information about a group of content records and make it easy to create, view, edit, delete, move, copy and reorganize content.

User Accounts and Roles

User Accounts restrict access to authorized users.  Users login to the web interface with their unique username and password over a secure SSL encrypted connection.

User Roles allow you to assign and restrict privileges to individual users.  For example, a user assigned both "Administrator" and "Editor" roles may have authorizations rights as well as total content access, depending on how the roles have been defined.  Another user in her department might be given a "News Editor" role that restricts her editorial privileges to a specific portion of the website.  webCOMAND can help you define, organize and assign roles to maximize content security and work efficiency.

A user's role also tailors the web interface to display only the features and content available to the individual user.

Content Types

Content types divide large chunks of content into more manageable parts.  An example of a content type might be a "Web Page" or "News Article".  A "News Article" content type might be defined by its Date, Byline, Summary, Keywords and Text fields to improve content consistency and layout/design flexibility.

Content Type Fields

Each content type field is assigned a data type, which determines the kind of information that will be entered and stored for that field. Possibilities include checkbox, number, decimal, date, time, plain text, password, HTML text, template text, and data for storing images, audio and other media. In addition to these "primitive" types, other content types may be used. This object-oriented approach makes it easy to compose complex content types with content hierarchies, recursion, references and more.

Fields can be set to present a drop-down list of possible values in the web forms, which improves data entry efficiency and accuracy for restricted value sets.

Content Forms

Content contributors can login, enter, upload and preview content using automatically-generated web forms. If permitted, they can also approve or publish content immediately.

Multiple users can add, edit, approve and otherwise manage content on the system simultaneously. The flow of new and changing content is controlled and recorded.

Workflow

Workflow and version control are handled automatically, keeping the focus on content and off of maintenance.

The working status of content is clearly denoted with icons and pop-up details. For example, content awaiting approval is listed first in folders and automatically appears in editors' task lists. While this content is being edited, it will be marked "checked-out" to prevent simultaneous edits by other users.

Version Control

webCOMAND keeps a complete record of all content changes.  Version history, content approval and one-click restoration of past edits are some of the ways webCOMAND tracks and controls content changes.

Templates

Web developers define content layout and formatting with standard HTML (or other markup or scripting) and a small set of simple but powerful COMAND Script statements. The dozen or so statements that merge, link, list and manipulate content are easy to create and understand for common tasks; their power and flexibility make possible even extremely complex content manipulation and formatting.

Preview & Publish

Preview and publish a single page, group of pages, entire web site or collection of web sites at various points of content and template creation and editing.  Publishing can be scheduled for future or recurring times. Updates efficiently render and upload only files whose templates or content have changed.

While pages publish, webCOMAND simultaneously generates reports detailing status information, a summary of published files and any warnings or errors encountered while interpreting COMAND Script statements.  These real-time reports allow administrators and developers to review and revise the details of all published files even during the publication process.

Publications

webCOMAND publication features control how and where a group of files is published, and allows complete control over branding, colors, layout and more.

Once publication settings are defined, any number of distributions can be set up. Each distribution is assigned a local or remote destination and values for that distribution's unique settings.

Import / Export

Content can be imported from or exported to local and remote databases and files. Multiple file and database types are supported including SQL databases, CSV files and more.

Import or export once, or schedule future or recurring times to regularly update webCOMAND from a content feed or vice versa.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the webCOMAND Feature Tour.  Please contact us with questions about specific webCOMAND features, or to learn more about how webCOMAND can be used to help create your website, intranet or extranet solution.