Triggers

MySource Matrix allows you define Triggers to automate actions based on events occurring and conditions being satisfied. Examples include placing content up for review after a set time frame, sending an email to a user when the status of an asset changes, or clearing the cache when an asset is made Live.

Triggers can be defined to fire when one of the following events take place: an asset is created, and asset status changes, a link is created, metadata is updated, or an asset attribute is saved.

You can define your Trigger to only fire if one of the following conditions are met i.e it has the specified Asset ID, asset type, status, attribute value, tree location or the asset is tagged.

The Trigger can be specified to the take any of the following actions: set the status or future status, set an attribute value, set a metadata value, set a metadata schema, link an asset in a particular location, set a permission, create an image variety, add web path, set a design, create an asset, create a clone and link in a particular location, set a future parent, add a URL, or increment the version number.

Caching and performance

MySource Matrix generates pages dynamically and provides content caching support to improve the performance of high-load sites. Caching is supported for Standard Pages, Asset Listings, Site Maps, and Search pages. The cache for an asset is cleared at periodic intervals, and the time period is configurable in the Cache Manager.

You can use permissions within MySource Matrix to display different page content depending on whether the user is logged in or not, and if logged in, depending on the groups in which the user is a member. MySource Matrix therefore caches the different versions of the page for public (not logged in) users, individual users and user groups. 

For search results, the results of each search term are cached by the Search Manager and the look of each search result is cached by the Search Page. Search results can be sorted dynamically while still maintaining the speed improvements provided by the caching system.

In addition to the in-built caching system to improve the efficiency of content serving, Squiz recommends the combined use of several strategies to ensure busy sites can cope with heavy load:

• Install PHP acceleration software on the server. This dramatically improves the performance of PHP driven sites.
• Install a proxy server, such as Squid Cache, in-front of the web server to manage sites with fairly static content.
• Host database and application serving on physically separate machines.
• Run many MySource Matrix systems (e.g. install one for each department) on physically different servers - which is feasible since there are no licensing fees with MySource Matrix

Squiz can work with clients to design a load management strategy to suit their particular requirements.

Thesaurus

MySource Matrix allows you to define a hierarchical list of terms either manually or by importing from an XML file. The Thesaurus can be used for several purposes:

• to restrict the values entered in a metadata field. 
• to define a list of abbreviations which can be used in the WYSIWYG editor, and will be automatically converted to the full term if required.
• to define a list of terms to be used for spell checking searches, which can then be used to suggest corrections of the search terms. You can also use a thesaurus to suggest similar terms that the user might like to use.

Structured file import 

MySource Matrix includes a tool to import MS Word documents into MySource Matrix and create a structured tree of standard pages. The tool converts the MS Word document to HTML, creating a new page for each heading it finds. The heading level to break on is configurable, so for example you could configure the tool to create a new page for each Heading Level 2. The contents of each section become the contents of the page and the heading levels define the page parent-child relationships – for example a H3 heading is a child of a H2 heading.

Logs

MySource Matrix automatically generates comprehensive audit logs of every change to every asset in the system. Logs include information such as:

• permission changes
• attribute changes (name, contents etc)
• links created
• assets created
• status changes
• schema changes
• login/logout
• workflow changes (approval/rejection etc)

Also included is a comprehensive interface for reviewing logs to allow administrators to define the type of log they are looking for.