Currently CM1 has a fairly decent method for users to add content however, for maximum participation, it would be nice if there was a method for non-technical contributors to submit content (such as press releases or news articles). If this class of user could just go to a secure web page on a CM1 site containing a content submission FORM that would be ideal. This would be in lieu of having to go into the editor for content submission.
This form would be a specific type of widget with limited fields (e.g. title, byline, date, image, body text.) These would map to a template specifically designed to accept these limited content types.
This same concept could apply to blogging as well where the user would never actually have to see the CM1 editing interface - only the form.
The dashboard certainly could be one method to manage content submission although what I’m suggesting would be one step easier for the user; with the goal of keeping the novice content contributor completely out of the CM1 editorial interface altogether.
I’d like to suggest that Percussion consider building a special version of a form widget (let’s call it a “page content form”) living in an authenticated part of the site that connects to a “content block” widget. Simply put, content coming from this form would publish to a content widget on a page without any need for the user to be inside of the CM1 environment.
The form would direct the contributor to “tag” their content which the “content block” widget would then filter and publish (upon approval) to the corresponding content block widget.
The Widget Builder that is currently in beta with customers provides this capability. You can define a widget as being comprised of multiple fields, and then users can enter data through this form interface rather than via a rich text widget. Users can edit the widget on the page or can simply enter in an Asset using the custom widget.
We did this as part of the release materials for 3.3. We included in help how you would configure a panel slider and a tabs widget. The link for the tabs widget sample is here:
We aren’t shipping any samples with the product, just the documentation. A content submission form would be pretty straightforward. You would simple create a combination of text and rich text fields. You can then define how the content would be displayed and styled via the display definition. Users could then be instructed to either create an asset to create content or edit a page containing the content submission form.
Have you gotten your hands on it and had a chance to play with Widget Builder?