Online Solutions overview

Intended purposes and use cases

Online Solutions allow you to build your own frontend on top of the censhare system. Their core purpose is to provide a bridge to the censhare Server, to allow retrieving or uploading data from/to it without accessing the main censhare database directly and to the full extent. Two alternative Online Solutions exist to fulfil this purpose:

• Online Channel  

• Headless Content Management System (Headless CMS or HCMS)

Online Channel also includes building blocks for a simple website. HCMS is a pure backend solution. The two other solutions – HCMS Client Starter Kit and HCMS Content Picker – use HCMS as a foundation and can be set up on top of it to help you in building your custom frontend. HCMS CSK is a ready-to-go set for creating a simple web application, whereas HCMS Content Picker requires integration with an existing frontend. Apart from these solutions, Headless CMS can be used with any other frontend of your choice. 

Intended use | Comparison table

Online Solutions enable you to create more lightweight frontends than the censhare clients and adapt them to very specific needs.

This articles provides a brief overview of each solution and explains why and when you should use any of them. 

Satellites

Satellites are not offered as a separate solution, but they are included in every product, except for one option, when Headless CMS is set up as a censhare Server module. Satellites are Java-based servlets that consist of a Jetty server and a read-only database. They are basically delivery servers. As part of the Online Channel product, satellites are considered Online Channel instances. If you want to use HCMS, HCMS CSK, or HCSM Content Picker, you will also need (at least one) satellite. 

Satellite configuration is done using corresponding censhare assets. Satellites are delivered as Docker images that also include the variable part of the product (see next sections for information on each product).

Architecture and technology comparison | Data flow diagram

The diagram below sums it all up and shows similarities and differences between Online Solutions. It also highlights main technologies that are consider in a bit more detail in the next sections. 

Online Channel | Easy-to-build websites

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Intended use case and target audience 

Online Channel allows you to author websites, microsites and communities and manage their content and is particularly suitable for specific marketing campaigns, news and media portals. It can be considered a web site builder and is easy to use even for a non-developer. Online Channel provides preconfigured content and information structures as well as a standard set of functions and HTML templates. You can transform your digital content stored in censhare automatically to use in your web site.

What's included

Online Channel is delivered as a Docker image that contains a satellite together with the OSGi bundles for the portal. Configuration is done in a corresponding censhare asset. 

Headless CMS (HCMS) | Your connector to the censhare system

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Intended use case and target audience 

Headless CMS helps you to define your own APIs and to match your intended data model with the existing censhare data model. HCMS enables a wide range of possible use cases like third party e-commerce sites, mobile apps, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and applications, and Web Content Management Systems for public or private websites, and more. For developers and admins, no knowledge of censhare internal data structures is required. 

However, it should not be confused with the censhare Server REST API. HCMS has no out-of-the-box APIs. Instead, they need to be defined first using schemas. Schemas allow you to reduce complexity of censhare data structures and focus only on what you need for a particular use case or task domain. This makes the solution highly flexible and suitable for creation of custom data models and custom application interfaces that perfectly fit with your use case. Customizations can be done easily using JSON, a simple and widespread format. The code repository includes a few sample schemas for you to start.

HCMS is compatible with any frontend technology of your choice. But we also offer a few Online Solutions that help you to build your frontend and that are already aligned with our Headless CMS. 

What's included

Headless CMS is a Java-based application that is shipped as a Docker image that also contains a satellite. 

HCMS Client Starter Kit (HCMS CSK) | All you need for a simple web application

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Intended use case and target audience 

HCMS CSK supports use cases that require a simplified user interface for interacting with the censhare system. It does not provide web applications out-of-the-box, but gives you tools for building them quickly. The resulting web applications are very intuitive and can be useful for target audiences that do not have experience or training to use a powerful content management solution like censhare itself. The application enables external users to find and work with assets stored in censhare without requiring direct access to the core system.

However, to use the Starter Kit for custom web applications, you need a developer experience.

What's included

The source code includes a Single Page Application based on the React framework, a middleware, and other building blocks for a release candidate. 

HCMS Content Picker | A single-purpose widget for integration into your website or web client

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Intended use case and target audience 

Last but not least, you can use HCMS Content Picker to enhance your existing web application with a simple widget that provides direct access to content stored in the censhare system. Users can "pick" and import content from censhare into the third-party web application. The UI of the Content Picker supports full-text search with previews, intuitive sorting and filtering, and displays further information, e.g. metadata. 

It can be embedded as a plug-in or an extension. It is possible to restrict access only to certain content. 

Implementation of HCMS Content Picker requires developer knowledge. 

What's included

HCMS Content Picker is distributed in the form of source files that also include schemas created specifically for using with the Content Picker. However, HCMS and a satellite are not included but required for HCMS Content Picker to run. Alternatively, a different CMS can be used.