Developer tools and templating
Integration with industry-leading development tools makes template development easy.
Template developers like to work with tools they are familiar with. Therefore, SDL Tridion Sites integrates with development tools such as Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Visual Studio. The basis of these integrations is WebDAV support, which provides a file system view of Content Manager.
Templates can be published like any other item in SDL Tridion Sites. Timed or scheduled publishing is also possible. Dreamweaver allows web developers to create the HTML layout for Template Building Blocks and to upload them (along with dependent files such as images, CSS and JavaScript) into SDL Tridion Sites directly.
The heart of the Content Manager extension framework is the API to the .NET Tridion Object Model, or TOM.NET API for short. The TOM.NET API enables full read-write access to Content Manager functionality, including the creation, modification or removal or items of all types. You code against the TOM.NET API when developing .NET template code and custom code for the Event System. Custom applications or third-party integrations use the Core Service web service.
The modular templating framework separates specific templating purposes, such as design, code or applications, into separate Template Building Blocks. This lets developers assemble and reuse them easily. In addition, the Template Builder desktop application includes troubleshooting features that allow developers to pinpoint errors and maximize the performance of each Template Building Block.
The modular templating model included in SDL Tridion Sites combines code and markup to allow you to manage design separately from functionality. Template authoring options include a mix of HTML markup and .NET assemblies. SDL Tridion Sites also provides the ability to create additional Mediators, to allow you to use markup or templating languages such as XSLT, Razor or other formats.