The Web of Content : Why Sitecore Matters
There's this thing about software that goes big - it always has a philosophy at its very core. I believe in the simple equation that defines software -
Problem + Philosophy = Technology
Let's look at what the problem is first. As discussed in my last post, we're trying to model content that is bound to change in somewhat predictable ways very often in its development phase and after that is done we need to focus more on being able to add new content, upgrade the current technology stack and while doing that, maintain compatibility and flexibility. These are the prime issues but yet another issue that comes out of them is the common solutions to this problem of software inertia. Once written, it can only be burned down. Software is no different from temples, mosques and churches because its very difficult to convince the end-user to adopt a radical change and hence, for the most part, useful software must retain flexibility.
Now that we're done with the background, let's hit the basics.
Sitecore is simple, really(as is this alliteration). When modeling web content the smallest unit of content is data representation that is complete in itself as far as functionality is concerned. Let's say you're building a website for a pet shop and you want to put cute puppy images on the front page. Now that's got nothing to do with how you would achieve this, what would be the server backend technology, what UI libraries you use, how do you log exceptions, do you keep your code clean, do you log exceptions, do you make a hook to measure performance. All that is an abstraction for the end-user who just loves to see puppy faces. Truth be told, most users are now aware of what a good website looks like and more often that not, modern UI and performance are not a user concern also. But we can leave that out for our humble pet-shop owner.
What's crazy good about Sitecore and you will eventually realize is that sitecore is good at a lot of things and does give you a lot of features out of the box but what really is a forerunner when it comes to sitecore is its unique take on modeling content. Most software was written at the time when you had to get it to work and that culture had a big interia. Before the separation of hardware from software and specific roles within the IT industry; or rather before the inception of something as big and prolific as the industry that has artists, designers and engineers, domain testers on the same project, software was primarily made as a recipe for getting the machine to do something. This is not so much true for modern programming languages like Python and Go. (I should probably use the word post-modern but it's been taken by our fellow social scientists). Web development in itself is very much like cooking - everyone can cook but rarely do they come close to what they call a home-made pie. That's what most web developers get good at after 10-20 years of proactive work.
Ok, let's cut to the chase - Sitecore just released v8.0 and now they have a lot of data analytics and stuff added to their technology stack. What's important here is to know that we're not going to take that up until later(keep the good stuff for people who really want it). If you're working in a company that uses sitecore and you just started, you will probably relate more because that's what I'm doing as I type. I'll get to more interesting stuff when I can. For more, continue reading.
Problem + Philosophy = Technology
Let's look at what the problem is first. As discussed in my last post, we're trying to model content that is bound to change in somewhat predictable ways very often in its development phase and after that is done we need to focus more on being able to add new content, upgrade the current technology stack and while doing that, maintain compatibility and flexibility. These are the prime issues but yet another issue that comes out of them is the common solutions to this problem of software inertia. Once written, it can only be burned down. Software is no different from temples, mosques and churches because its very difficult to convince the end-user to adopt a radical change and hence, for the most part, useful software must retain flexibility.
Now that we're done with the background, let's hit the basics.
Sitecore is simple, really(as is this alliteration). When modeling web content the smallest unit of content is data representation that is complete in itself as far as functionality is concerned. Let's say you're building a website for a pet shop and you want to put cute puppy images on the front page. Now that's got nothing to do with how you would achieve this, what would be the server backend technology, what UI libraries you use, how do you log exceptions, do you keep your code clean, do you log exceptions, do you make a hook to measure performance. All that is an abstraction for the end-user who just loves to see puppy faces. Truth be told, most users are now aware of what a good website looks like and more often that not, modern UI and performance are not a user concern also. But we can leave that out for our humble pet-shop owner.
What's crazy good about Sitecore and you will eventually realize is that sitecore is good at a lot of things and does give you a lot of features out of the box but what really is a forerunner when it comes to sitecore is its unique take on modeling content. Most software was written at the time when you had to get it to work and that culture had a big interia. Before the separation of hardware from software and specific roles within the IT industry; or rather before the inception of something as big and prolific as the industry that has artists, designers and engineers, domain testers on the same project, software was primarily made as a recipe for getting the machine to do something. This is not so much true for modern programming languages like Python and Go. (I should probably use the word post-modern but it's been taken by our fellow social scientists). Web development in itself is very much like cooking - everyone can cook but rarely do they come close to what they call a home-made pie. That's what most web developers get good at after 10-20 years of proactive work.
Ok, let's cut to the chase - Sitecore just released v8.0 and now they have a lot of data analytics and stuff added to their technology stack. What's important here is to know that we're not going to take that up until later(keep the good stuff for people who really want it). If you're working in a company that uses sitecore and you just started, you will probably relate more because that's what I'm doing as I type. I'll get to more interesting stuff when I can. For more, continue reading.
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