Different API and Extension points in Tridion CM

Sdl Tridion can be customized at various levels as it provides very rich APIs to extend it. Tridion has different extension points for CM and CD. i will try to cover maximum extension points below.

Content Management

APIs

1) Tom.net: Tom.net is .net based API, it runs and CM machine. it allows to you to interact from CM machine only.  Tom.net provides various methods to be used for Templating, Event System. This is Read/Write API, but write operations are by default off in config.

2) Core Service - Core service is WCF service which expose various APIs to interact with CM system. it provide CRUD methods to operate on various CMS Objects. Main use-case of core-service is when you need to interact with CM machine from different machine other than CM or if you want to integrated CM with some third party system. It was introduced in Tridion 2011 (to replace existing COM based APIs) and still in use. It is also used in Workflows

e.g:  you need to read some Xml and create components in Tridion CM.

3) Anguilla: It is used to extend Content Manager Explorer(CME) user interface. eg. you want to introduce new buttons and new functionality in CME. e.g Custom spell checker, custom publishing, extend paste functionality. It was introduced in Tridion 2011 and still in use.

4) ECL : External Content Library was introduced in Tridion 2013, its very useful and awesome API available in Tridion. It allows to list/integrate external content repositories  third-party content/media in CMS and allow you to use it as native components with little exception. The access point looks just like a normal folder, making it easy to manage.

e.g . User want to see all images of DAM into CM system, want to view You tube or Dailymotion videos in CM interface to use in the components. 

Extension Points:

5) GUI Extensions - Its used to extend/customized the CMS UI. anguilla, JS and .net are used to create a GUI extension.

6) Events: Tridion provides Events as extension point where you can capture particular event and provide some customization. one of the most used use-case is validation of data. so when user save the component, save even can be captured and validate the data, log the data etc.

7) Custom Resolver: A resolver basically read an item from the publishing-queue and returns a list of items to be rendered. Tridion has kept it extensible so if you want to override default resolving behavior.
e.g when a component is resolved, by default all the component that links to this component are also resolved and so on. so it gives very long queue and impact the performance also, so if you want to resolve only this component or level 1 component this can be extended and registered in the TridionContentManager.config file.

8) Custom Page: Custom Pages can be used to perform operations in the Content Manager that are not supported by the default UI(user interface) . e.g, create a Custom Page that talks with the Core Service to automate Page creation. it can also be used to customize dashboard for users.

Anchor in Tridion Component links

In Tridion Link Anchor (jump to specific section of the page) is very tricky. there is an out of the box anchor option. let discuss that first.

Anchor OOTB : In component link there is an attribute "Add Anchor"

<tridion:ComponentLink runat="server" PageURI="tcm:85-159563-64" ComponentURI="tcm:85-159309" TemplateURI="tcm:0-0-0" AddAnchor="true" LinkText="internal link test" LinkAttributes=" title= &#34;alt text for link &#34;" TextOnFail="true"/>

when this AddAnchor = true is set. Tridion CD will create anchor for particular components as per their position of the page.

e.g following is a Tridion page sompage.aspx having three components Comp 1 and Comp 2 and Comp 3

------------
Comp 1
---------
Comp 2
---------
Comp 3
---------------

e.g you use comp2 as component link on another page. it will be resolved as somepage.aspx#1
so this is as per the position of the component on page.

another catch is you have to create <a id="1"> on somePage explicitly using your templates. this is not automated.

Custom solution:
As OOTB solution is base on numbers only. if you want to based it on some text e.g #Intro. you need some customization for it.

I have develop & tested this small solution for it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
namespace  CD.Web.ComponentLink.Extensions
{
    public class ComponentLink : Tridion.ContentDelivery.Web.UI.ComponentLink
    {
        [DefaultValue("None")]
        [Bindable(true)]
        [Category("Appearance")]
        public string AnchorName { get; set; }


        protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
        {
            if (HttpContext.Current == null || HttpContext.Current.Application == null)
                return;
            using (var compLink = new Tridion.ContentDelivery.Web.Linking.ComponentLink(new TcmUri(ComponentUri).PublicationId))
            {
             
                var link = compLink.GetLink(PageUri, ComponentUri, TemplateUri, LinkAttributes, LinkText, TextOnFail, AddAnchor);
                link.Anchor = AnchorName;
             
                string linkAsString = link.ToString();
                writer.Write(linkAsString);
                this.RenderChildren(writer);
            }
        }

    }

}
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Register above custom control in your website's web.config 
• Update schema to accept the Anchor from Editor
• Update template code to pass this anchor name as mention below

<Rk:ComponentLink runat="server" PageURI="tcm:85-159563-64" ComponentURI="tcm:85-159309" TemplateURI="tcm:0-0-0" AnchorName="true" AddAnchor="false" LinkText="internal link test" LinkAttributes=" title= &#34;alt text for link &#34;" TextOnFail="true"/>

do post comments if you have any questions.

CXM: Customer Experience Managment-tridion

Customer Experience Management (CXM) is a strategy and practice for managing customer
experiences online and offline to acquire, retain, and turn customers into satisfied, loyal brand
advocates and ambassadors.(Wiki)

I heard this acronym around 1.5 year back in a discussion and then found lots of  information from Forrester and RealstoryGroup.

Some says" is nothing more than a feature arms race between companies that have latched onto a false "next big thing". These features were not developed in response to actual customer needs or requests. I never hear anyone talking about CXM except for CMS vendors and analysts."

As per my view, CXM Make sense in lots of context.

Following example describe a particular experience of an user. and how different type of module/systems enhance the experience of user.

Experience:

1. Raj get to know of discount on newly launched restaurant in his Area via a Ad on search engine - Ads
2. He browse the restaurant website on his Mobile. - Mobile Delivery
3. Check few restaurant picture and details -  DAM/MAM
4. Then Browse the reviews of restaurant on the website and yelp!! - Reviews, Ratings
5. Raj also checks restaurant 's Facebook page for more reviews. - Social Share, Social Listening.
6. He finally calls their customer care to book the restaurant. - Customer care

if we replace restaurant with a Mobile phone.

7. Customer buy the phone from the Website. E-commerce
8. Website also add some loyalty points for his buying which could be later on used for buying some other product. - Loyalty management 
9. Share the review on website & his joy on Social media.
10. On revisiting the website, website come up with accessories and other stuff related to his past browsing and buying experience.  Personalization. 
11. Vendor sends him various coupons/products information or email on his mobile/mail - Coupon management, Campaigning

CXM Technology Ecosystem

   IMAGE Courtesy:  rEALsTORY gROUP

SDL Tridion as CXM Capabilities.

Recently SDL launched new offering SDL Customer Experience Cloud which is an SaaS based solution and provide provide most of the features from above pictures on cloud in integrated mode. It seems very promising and give a leg-up to SDL in very competitive CMS world.