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Developing dynamic websites under the template-based publishing framework

SDL Tridion Sites provides various features for developing dynamic websites, such as taxonomies, search, Dynamic Content Assembly, Linking and Dynamic Component Presentations.

If your organization uses a template-based publishing model, the following steps describe the general implementation plan for developing a website for SDL Tridion Sites-based content:

  1. Choose a scripting language: choose the scripting environment in which you want to develop the website (JSP or ASP.NET).
  2. Choose a website model: decide which website model(s) you want to develop (the extent of dynamic functionality in your website).
  3. Organize content for navigation (optional): if you want to generate navigation automatically, design a content organization that corresponds to the navigation you want to generate (otherwise uses static navigation).
  4. Create taxonomies for navigation (optional): if you want to generate navigation automatically, design a knowledge map of your content using Categories and Keywords from which to generate navigation and tag content with Keywords (otherwise uses static navigation).
  5. Install, implement, and integrate search (optional): install and configure your third-party search engine. If you want to integrate search into SDL Tridion Sites, you can do so by creating a custom Deployer module.
  6. Develop Regions, Component Templates and Page Templates: create Regions, Component Templates and Page Templates that present the Components and Pages in the way that you want them to be displayed.
  7. Write queries for Dynamic Content Assembly (optional): if your website model requires queries for Dynamic Content Assembly, create a Page Template that executes such a query and processes the results.
  8. Customize Linking (optional): SDL Tridion Sites ships with a standard implementation of linking. You may wish to change the default behavior.
  9. Publish Dynamic Component Presentations (optional): if the website model requires it, make Component Templates dynamic in order to create Dynamic Component Presentations.
  10. Test the website: perform tests to verify that the website itself, including search, hyperlinks, and navigation, all work as expected.