CMS Overview

The Bloomberg Connects content management system (CMS) lets you control the content that appears in your digital guide. This article provides a high-level overview of the CMS and content structure so you can get familiar with the available options.

For an introduction to the Bloomberg Connects app and structure of your digital guide, see App Overview.

Tour of the CMS

The CMS is a light-weight tool that does what you need and nothing you don't. This section briefly describes how to find your way around the CMS.

Navigation Bar

The navigation bar is the main way you move around the CMS. From the navigation bar, you can open your content library, attach content to your guide, download reports, and access other workflow tools. The navigation bar is made up of four sections.

1. Content: Upload media assets and use content templates to create digital representations of your organization, objects, and collection materials. For more, see Content Templates.
2. Guide: Combine materials from your content library with additional information about your organization to build your guide. For more, see Organization Details.
3. Reports: Once your guide is live, review usage data to quantify your guide's reach and make data-driven choices. For more, see Data Dashboard.
4. Tools: Access features that make it easy to upload and review your guide's content. For more, see Bulk Upload Overview, Guide Export, and Accessibility Suggestions.

Toolbar

The toolbar contains guide-level controls so you can change the version of the content that you're editing and publish your draft.

1. Version Switcher: When you first get started, you will work on a draft version of your guide, which is not available to the public in the app until your guide is launched. After launch, you can fix typos in the live version of your guide or create a new draft to work on larger changes before you’re ready to publish the changes. For more, see Managing Guide Versions > Understanding Versions.
2. Guide Actions: When you're ready for your draft content to be visible in the app, click the three dots and select Publish Draft. Once your guide is live, choose Create Draft to make changes without disrupting your published content. For more, see Managing Guide Versions > Creating a Draft and Managing Guide Versions > Publishing a Draft.

Content Template Forms

Adding and editing content in your CMS is easy thanks to standardized, templated forms for inputting information. The following example shows the Exhibition template, but the same principles apply to any content template.

1. Add Button: Open a new form to add to your content library.

2. Language Switcher: To provide human-translated content in a language other than your guide’s default language, choose the language here. This creates a parallel instance of the object in the new language, where you can add new text content. Once all of your content is translated into another language, you can expose your translations in your guide. For more, see Multilingual Content.

   Note: All of your text content is automatically available in 40+ languages via Google Translate. The language option here allows you to overwrite Google Translate on a per-object basis.

3. Required Fields: All templates have some required fields, indicated by asterisks. Usually, these fields include images (or media files) and title/name. This information ensures that your guide is visually appealing and contains the most basic information visitors need to know.
4. Optional Fields: All templates include some options fields. Add as much detail as you like. Generally, the more detail you can provide, the better. All information you provide is available to visitors when they access this content in the app.

Content Hierarchy

Like any content management system, the Bloomberg Connects CMS is made up of assets, as well as templates for organizing and building on those assets. These pieces fit together in a nested hierarchy that is flexible enough to suit a variety of needs.

Content Templates

The content templates give you a framework for creating the content that appears in your guide and ensure a consistent look and feel across the platform.

Exhibition

A group of items that can be experienced in any order, like:

• Artworks that share a creator or theme
• Artifacts shown together in a historical house
• A cluster of plants in a botanic garden
• A collection of informative or instructional items about your guide

Tour

A group of items that should be experienced on site and in a specific order, like:

• Highlights from your collection
• A self-guided nature walk
• A linear story that unfolds one stop at a time

Item

A single object that can be presented by itself or grouped into an exhibition or tour, like:

• A work of art
• A flower or tree (botanical item)
• A performance, show, or play
• A director’s welcome or other informational content

Event

An interactive visitor experience that takes place at a specific date and time, like:

• A performance, show, or play
• An in-person or virtual artist talk or reading
• An arts and crafts fair or other community gathering

Asset Types

Assets are the smaller building blocks that you can add to the content template. Assets don't appear in your guide unless they're attached to a template.

Audio, Video, and Image Files

Multimedia files that you can use to enrich your guide. For example, you can:

• Illustrate and explain artwork in your collection
• Provide behind-the-scenes video or audio footage from your creators
• Record voices from your community to add fresh perspectives to your interpretations

Creators

A special type of asset that can represent the people responsible for creating the objects represented in your guide, like:

• An artist
• A film-maker
• A composer

Content Discoverability

After you create Items, Events, Exhibitions, and Tours, you can add them to your guide.

Visitors find content in your guide in a few different ways:

1. Starting in your physical or digital space (e.g., on site at your organization or on your website), visitors find a link, lookup number, or QR code that they follow to open specific content in your Bloomberg Connects guide. For example, a visitor standing in front of a painting in your gallery scans the QR code on the nearby wall label to open the Item dedicated to the painting and listen to the associated audio clip. For more, see Onsite Discoverability.
2. Starting in your Bloomberg Connects guide, visitors browse the home screen and map to find content that looks interesting. For example, a visitor interested in seeing a particular Exhibition finds the section labelled Current Exhibitions on your home screen, taps to view Exhibition details, then continues exploring that Exhibition's Items and related content. For more, see Home Screen and Introduction to Maps.

The structure of your guide is crucial to helping visitors in the second category understand what you offer and jump into what they find most interesting. A fundamental component of your guide structure is your home screen.

Home Screen Hierarchy

Your guide's home screen is the first thing visitors see when they start your guide. You can think of it as your landing page or table of contents.

The home screen is made up of multiple sections. Each section can contain one or more pieces of content.

While the sections you choose are specific to your organization's needs and strategy, it is common for a guide home screen to have the following basic sections:

• Welcome
• Plan Your Visit
• Collection Highlights
• Now on Display
• Future Exhibitions
• Past Exhibitions
• Stay Connected or Get Involved

Within each section, you can add your content. For more, see Home Screen.