CommonSpot Training: CommonSpot for Developers

This four-day course takes you through the best practices for customizing a website developed using the CommonSpot Content Management Server from Paperthin, Inc. This course was developed by Fig Leaf Software based on our experience from developing and deploying over 500 sites using the CommonSpot Content Server.

Price: $2,295.00
GSA Price: $1909.46

Students should have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience:

• Attend Adobe's Fast Track to ColdFusion course or equivalent
• Attend Paperthin's CommonSpot for Content Contributors course or equivalent
• Minimum of 3 months ColdFusion development experience

Upon completion of this course, student should be able to:

• Build a custom login page
• Configure a custom color pallette
• Use CommonSpot environment variables effectively
• Understand the nuances of the "Base Template"
• Create custom rendering handlers for CommonSpot Elements
• Create Page Rendering Handlers using Metadat
• Create a facility for "Print Versions" of Pages
• Use CommonSpot Metadata facilities to link pages to relational databases
• Create CommonSpot extensions that reference the CommonSpot relational data schema
• Creating custom objects
• Understanding Clustering and Replication
• Export CommonSpot data to other programs

Unit 1: Introducing the Course

• Understanding the Course
• Course Objectives
• Course prerequisites
• Course Format
• Course Content
• Introducing CommonSpot

Unit 2: Getting Started

• Configuring the ColdFusion Server
• Configuring the JVM
• Configuring Settings that Affect Scalability
• Deploying CommonSpot
• Creating a New CommonSpot Site
• Understanding the CommonSpot Data Schema
• Cloning a Site

Unit 3: Buidling Templates

• Defining your template architecture
• Buidling a Base Template
• Implementing your Graphical Design as a CFML Custom Tag
• Implementing CSS-based designs
• Making CSS Styles Available to Contributors
• Implementing a Printer Friendly Format

Unit 4: Metadata and Element Render Handlers

• Using Metadata
• Implementing Page Render Handlers using Metadata
• Creating and Deploying Element Render Handlers
• Using Metadata and the Taxonomy systems to categorize pages
• Using Taxonomy to drive navigation
  

Unit 5: Custom Elements

• Creating and Defining a Custom Element
• Creating Display Templates
• Using Field masks
• Building Custom Field Types
• Using Custom Elements for Personalization
• Syndicating Content with RSS
  

Unit 6: CommonSpot Security and Simplifying the Authoring Experience

• Setting permissions at the site/subsite levels
• Applying security to templates
• Applying security to elements
• Securing the ColdFusion Administrator
• Securing the CommonSpot Upgrade utility
• Customizing Security Messages
• Implementing single sign-on with LDAP / Active Directory
• Streamlining the Page Creation Process
• Using JavaScript to alter the CommonSpot UI and set defaults for form fields

Unit 7: Approving Content

• Establishing an approval process
• Navigating the approval process
  

Unit 8: Extending and Troubleshooting CommonSpot with ColdFusion

• Datasheet Column Render Handlers
  
• The CommonSpot Event Model
  
• Extending CommonSpot with ColdFusion
• Exporting Custom Element Data
• Using iFrames
• Using loader.cfm
• Using the CommonSpot Web Services API
• Techniques for Identifying and Rectifying Performance Bottlenecks

Unit 9: Using the Application Development Framework

• Building Applications for Distribution
• Packaging Applications for Distribution
• Deploying the CommonSpot Blog
• Deploying the CommonSpot Wiki