Content management system

Abstract

A content management system for information delivery systems, including web based systems, that organizes the content of the information separately from the appearance of the presented information. The pages of the information are organized into documents and borders. Each border and document is further divided into an outline, organizing the content, and a template organizing the appearance. Individual content is stored in a native format enabling creators and maintainers to use familiar software tools for creation and maintenance. When retrieving the information, an assembly process gathers the content in accordance with the document's outline and formats the content in accordance with the document's template. The data structure allows triggers to be associated with content such that automated maintenance procedure can be implemented based on the activation of the triggers.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A content management system comprising: 
 a repository separately storing content, an organization component of the content and a format component of the content; and    a content management system server that accesses the organization component of the content and assembles a display of the content based on the organization component in accordance with the format component of the content.    
     
     
         2 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 1 , wherein the repository comprises: 
 a database indexing the content, the organization component of the content and the format component of the content.    
     
     
         3 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 2 , wherein the database is accessed based upon a site requested by a viewer.  
     
     
         4 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 3 , wherein the content management system server accesses the database, in response to a request to view a site, and accesses the organization component of the content to determine the content to display.  
     
     
         5 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 3 , wherein the database is organized such that each site has at least one document and each document has at least one outline indicating a hierarchy of the content for the document and a format component of the outline.  
     
     
         6 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 5 , wherein the at least one outline references sections which in turn reference other sections or pieces of content.  
     
     
         7 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 6 , wherein a section references a format component.  
     
     
         8 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 2 , wherein the database stores triggers which indicate a condition for which an action is defined.  
     
     
         9 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 8 , wherein an action is selected from one of generating an electronic message indicating that content needs to be updated and automatically updating content.  
     
     
         10 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 2 , wherein the repository comprises: 
 a repository server maintaining the database; and    at least one data system maintaining the content.    
     
     
         11 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a web server that requests a display from the content management system server and wherein the content management system server assembles at least one web page as the display.    
     
     
         12 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a personalization routine that modifies one of the content, organization, and format of the display based upon a predefined segment group to which a viewer of the display belongs.    
     
     
         13 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 12 , wherein the personalization routine further modifies one of the content, organization, and format of the display based upon a predefined test group to which a viewer of the display belongs.  
     
     
         14 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 12 , wherein the segment groups are defined based upon a relationship of the viewer to the owner of the content.  
     
     
         15 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 12 , wherein the segment group of the viewer is determined based upon information from the viewer.  
     
     
         16 . A content management system for dynamically creating world wide web pages comprising: 
 a repository separately storing content for the web pages, an organization component of the content and a format component of the content; and    a content management system server that receives a request from a web server for a web page and, in real time, accesses the organization component of the content and assembles a web page for the content based on the organization component in accordance with the format component of the content.    
     
     
         17 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 16 , further comprising: 
 a web server that requests web pages from the content management system server and serves the assembled web page to an end user.    
     
     
         18 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 16 , wherein the repository comprises: 
 a database indexing the content, the organization component of the content and the format component of the content.    
     
     
         19 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 18 , wherein the database is organized such that each web site has at least one document and each document has at least one outline indicating a hierarchy of the content for the document and a format component of the outline.  
     
     
         20 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 19 , wherein the at least one outline references sections which in turn reference other sections or pieces of content along with an optional format component.  
     
     
         21 . A content management system, as set forth in  claim 18 , wherein the database stores triggers which indicate a condition for which an action is defined.  
     
     
         22 . A method of dynamically creating a web page from existing content comprising: 
 storing content of the web page in a format native to the tools used to assemble the content;    storing a separate format component of the web page indicating how to display the web page;    storing a separate outline of the web page indicating a hierarchy of the content on the web page and the format component for the web page; and    when requested assembling the web page, in real time, by accessing the outline of the web page, retrieving the content and format component referenced in the outline, organizing the content based on the outline of the web page and formatting the content based on the format component.    
     
     
         23 . A method, as set forth in  claim 22 , further comprising: 
 storing triggers which initiate a review of content when activated.    
     
     
         24 . A method, as set forth in  claim 22 , further comprising: 
 identifying a segment group of a viewer of the web page; and    personalizing content of the assembled web page based upon the segment group of the viewer.    
     
     
         25 . A computer-readable medium encoded with a data structure for a content management system separating content from an organizational component and a format component thereof, the data structure comprising: 
 a table indexing sites to a site ID;    a table indexing a document to the site ID using a document ID;    a table indexing an outline to document ID using an outline ID;    a table indexing at least one section to an outline ID using a section ID;    a table indexing content to each section ID; and    a table indexing a formatting component to an outline ID.