I.C.E. Concepts
To take full advantage of I.C.E., it's important to undersand the following I.C.E. content management concepts.
Site
An I.C.E. Site is a standalone website, web application or minisite with it's own sets of administrators, members, channels (sections), pages, images, videos, Flash, documents etc.
Channel
An I.C.E. Channel is a section of a website, web application or minisite. For example, Finance, Entertainment, Sports can be channels of a web portal or Photos, Videos, Blogs can be channels of a web application. Channels are made up of HTML code that determines the look and feel of each channel.
Pages
Pages are assigned to Channels and hold content for individual web pages within a particular channel.
Images, Flash, Videos, Audio, Documents
These are stored in the I.C.E. database and can be assigned to individual pages dynamically or they can be uploaded and referenced directly within Channels or Pages.
Components
Components are snippets of programming functionality that can be called by Channels to display or store content in the database. Components are the application logic of a site and are programmed in Coldfusion.
Containers
Containers are a convenient way to separate blocks of HTML code in a Channel so that they can easily re-used elsewhere in a Site. For example, Header, Footer, Menu, Login Form can all be Containers that are shared across a Site.
Languages
I.C.E. sites can be multilingual. A site becomes multi-lingual when it is assigned a Language such as English or Chinese
Labels
Labels are dynamic variables that hold language translations for the Site. When a site user switches languages, these labels are dynamically replaced with the new language.
Widgets
Widgets are pre-built functions that can be called in Channels. E.g. the Channel widget retrieves content for a particular Channel and the Page widget dynamically retrieves content for a particular page. Widgets take variables that determin what content to retrieve and how the content should be retrieved. Widgets allow site administrators to implement programming functionality without any technical knowledge or Coldfusion programming.
Custom Content
I.C.E. allows you to create custom content such as a Product Catalog or Photo Gallery by simply creating a new database table. The forms and programming logic (components) to manage the content are created for you automatically. This is a powerful way to extend I.C.E. functionality without any additional programming. Custom Content is available for use across all sites in I.C.E.
Messages
Messages is a convenient way for I.C.E. users to communicate with each other from within the I.C.E. interface.
Tasks
Tasks allow users to assign content management tasks to each other and communicate the status of those tasks.
Users
Users are people who can administer a particular Site. Users have Roles, which determine which administrative features they can access. Roles include Designer, Copywriter, Editor, Programmer, Webmaster, Manager and Administrator. Each user can be assigned to multiple sites.
