Overview of CampaignDrive's Content Database tool.
Introduction to the Content Database
CampaignDrive’s Content Database stores customized sets of data that an Admin User can add to templates. This feature works in many ways like Location and User tags do, to pull specific information onto a template from fields in a table. However, unlike Location or User tags, each field in the table is custom, making the whole data set is highly configurable. On a template tags made from Content Database information are called Content Tags. Using Content Tags allows the Administrator to update data across many templates from a single place - the Content Database.
There are two parts to the process: creating the data set and connecting the data to a template. This document covers the creation of the data set. Another document, “Content Links: Admin User Guide” covers the second part of the process: adding the content to a template.
The Content Database can be manually populated with data that is entered by an Admin User or automatically populated by another feature called a Content Import (click here for more information on content imports, or reach out to your Customer Success Manager for more information). This document applies to the manual creation of a custom data set.
For the Administrator: The Content Database provides sets of customized data that can be automatically pulled onto templates. There can be many data sets, and the data can be segmented by location to restrict End Users from seeing items they should not access. The data for many templates is managed from a single location - the Content Database, so the Administrator does not need to go into each individual template to make updates. The Content Database allows the Administrator to have more precise control over the data by preventing End Users from “mixing and matching”, gives them the ability to tie text and images together in a data set and controls what items an End User sees on a template.
For the End User: The Content Database allows for personalized content, in addition to their User and Location information, to automatically populate on the template (a specific logo or disclaimer, for example) or to be available for selection and further personalization. The Content Database allows related data to be tied together in a template, allowing End Users to change many pieces of data at the same time. When an item appears more than once on a template, it also allows the End User to make their selection once and the change will populate everywhere. It also can handle large amounts of data in a way that easily allows End Users to find their content quickly.
Components to the Content Database
Category: A data set (group) of related data. The Admin User assigns fields to the Category based on the type of information in the data (text or image).
Field: A piece of data. A set of fields are defined for a Category. There are 4 field types - text, image, multiple text and multiple image.
Item: An unique entry in the Category that defines the information in each field for a single set of data. An item can be assigned to a specific location or locations in order for only relevant entries to appear to the End User.
Steps to Creating Content Database Items
- Determining the Content Fields
- Creating a Category
- Creating an Item for the Category
- Managing the Categories and Items
Tying the Content Database to Templates: Content Links
Once the Content Database Category has been created and has been populated with AT LEAST one Content Item, the category can be connected to templates. CampaignDrive connects content database content to templates via a setting called Content Links. Content Links are created by an Admin User inside a template (either Master or Campaign) to connect the fields of one or more content categories to the fields in a template. The connection creates content tags based on the content category fields. The Admin User then can assign the tags to images and text in the template.
Once the tag is assigned, the content tag will pull the data associated with the content category field onto the template. When any layer that uses a content tag is accessed by the End User, a menu will appear on the right side of the page that allows them to customize the content. The content is selected by category item - each item is a set of data that will populate the fields in the template. The End User selects the item from a drop-down menu. Control of what items they see is based on the location permission of each item, with the user only seeing items connected to the locations in which they are associated.