Blueprinting of Multimedia Assets

Abstract

Content management systems that utilize blueprinting and external content libraries are described herein. Methods for managing a web-based marketing campaign using a blueprint may include establishing a blueprint for a web-based marketing campaign using a content management system, the blueprint having rules for managing assets utilized by at least a portion of a plurality of publications of a hierarchical model of the web-based marketing campaign, the plurality of publications having at least one parent publication and at least one child publication. In some instances, at least a portion of the assets utilized by the hierarchical model may be stored on an external content library. The methods may also include determining a change in at least one asset for the at least one parent publication, and automatically inheriting the change in the at least one asset for the at least one parent publication to the at least one child publication according to the blueprint.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for managing a web-based marketing campaign using a blueprint, the method comprising:
 establishing a blueprint for a web-based marketing campaign using a content management system, the blueprint comprising blueprint rules for ( 1 ) managing assets utilized by at least a portion of a plurality of publications of a hierarchical model of the web-based marketing campaign and ( 2 ) for localizing assets, the plurality of publications comprising at least one parent publication and at least one child publication, at least a portion of the assets utilized by the hierarchical model being stored on an external content library mapped to the content management system via a network, the assets on the external content library owned by a plurality of different owners, wherein the external content library is registered and mapped by:
 registering an external content library with a content management system using an external content provider module, whereby one or more content authors must present or verify their identity before accessing assets that reside on the external content library; and 
 mapping assets of the external content library for use within the content management system; 
   periodically evaluating the assets of the external content library to detect a change in at least one asset of the plurality of assets stored on the external content library for the at least one parent publication;   using the blueprint rules for localizing assets to determine whether to automatically translate at least a portion of the change in the at least one asset across multiple websites for the at least one parent publication to the at least one child publication without translating manually; and   using the blueprint rules for localizing assets to determine whether to automatically inherit at least an unmodified portion of the change including without translation of the portion of the change, in the at least one asset across multiple websites for the at least one parent publication to the at least one child publication.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the external content library is registered and mapped to the content management system. 
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 2 , wherein the mapping of the assets of the external content library for use within the content management system by the asset mapper module occurs at intervals to ensure that the assets are available and properly linked to web content. 
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein localizing comprises any of translation, hiding, inheriting, pushing, or any combinations thereof, of assets for a publication. 
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein a publication comprises any of assets, templates, functionalities, keywords, metadata, workflows, or any combinations thereof. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the blueprint comprises rules for localizing assets for the at least one child publication. 
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the blueprint rules for localizing assets include:
 rules for whether to automatically translate changes in assets for the at least one child publication without manual translation,   rules for determining based on the type of assets whether to inherit changes in the assets in an unmodified format, including without translation of the asset changes, between the parent and child publications, and   rules for determining based on content of the assets whether to inherit changes in assets in an unmodified manner, including without translation of the asset changes, between the parent and child publications,   
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising, upon selection of an asset from the external content library via the content management system, mapping the selected asset from the external content library into web content being created on the content management system. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the external content library includes assets for a plurality of owners and individual assets on the external content library are owned by different owners. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising tracking usage of assets stored on the external content library and providing usage information for the assets to the respective owners of the assets. 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the blueprint rules further comprise rules for localizing the text in the at least one asset to that of the language of one of the multiple websites. 
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the blueprint rules further comprise rules for localizing a text asset of the at least one asset by translating the text asset from a first language to a second language, to produce a localized text asset in one of the multiple websites. 
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein when the content author selects an asset from the external content library for inclusion in the creation of web content via a graphical user interface, a second mapping is executed by linking the selected asset to the web content being created by the content author. 
     
     
         14 . A content management system for managing a web-based marketing campaign using a blueprint, the system comprising:
 a memory for storing executable instructions; and   a processor for executing the executable instructions, the executable instructions comprising:   a blueprinting module that establishes a blueprint for a web-based marketing campaign using a content management system, the blueprint comprising blueprint rules for (1) managing assets utilized by at least a portion of a plurality of publications of a hierarchical model of the web-based marketing campaign and (2) for localizing assets, the plurality of publications comprising at least one parent publication and at least one child publication, at least a portion of the assets utilized by the hierarchical model being stored on an external content library mapped to the content management system via a network, the assets on the external content library owned by a plurality of different owners, wherein the external content library is registered and mapped by:
 registering an external content library with a content management system using an external content provider module, whereby one or more content authors must present or verify their identity before accessing assets that reside on the external content library; and 
 mapping assets of the external content library for use within the content management system; 
   an asset manager module that receives a change in an asset mapped from the external content library to the asset manager for the parent publication; and
 wherein the blueprinting module uses inheritance rules to automatically inherit in an unmodified form, including without translation at least a portion of the change in the asset between the parent publication and the child publication, and uses the localizing rules to automatically translate without manual translation at least a portion of the change in the asset from the parent publication to the child publication and wherein the external content library is registered and mapped by:
 registering an external content library with a content management system using an external content provider module, whereby one or more content authors must present or verify their identity before accessing assets that reside on the external content library; and 
 mapping assets of the external content library for use within the content management system. 
 
   
     
     
         15 . The system according to  claim 14 , wherein the external content library is registered and mapped to the content management system via an external content provider module. 
     
     
         16 . The system according to  claim 15 , wherein the external content provider module registers an external content library with the content management system and an asset mapper module maps assets of the external content library for use within the content management system. 
     
     
         17 . The system according to  claim 14 , wherein localizing comprises any of translation, hiding, inheriting, pushing, or any combinations thereof, of assets for a publication. 
     
     
         18 . The system according to  claim 14 , wherein the blueprint comprises rules for localizing assets for the at least one child publication. 
     
     
         19 . The system according to  claim 14 , wherein the blueprint rules further comprise rules for localizing the text in the at least one asset to that of the language of one of the multiple websites. 
     
     
         20 . The system according to  claim 14 , wherein when the content author selects an asset from the external content library for inclusion in the creation of web content via a graphical user interface, a second mapping is executed by linking the selected asset to the web content being created by the content author.