Create Once Publish Everywhere with Drupal

Long gone are the days, when cellphones were used just for calling purposes and desktops were switched on to browse the web. Today, information and entertainment can be accessed from anywhere and from any device.

According to Pew Research, over 95% of people currently own a cell phone, out of which more than 70% are smartphone users.

Users expect the best possible accessibility and functionality no matter what platform they're on. Let’s understand how Drupal solves the challenges inherent to this evolving model of content consumption with the concept of Create Once Publish Everywhere.

Understanding the Approach

COPE is a content management technique allowing content creators to add content in one place and repurpose it multiple times for different mediums.

It is important for enterprises to manipulate their content strategy as customers engage with the content they’re interested in across different touch points as per their needs.

So it’s beneficial to consider COPE approach while developing a web application. This revolutionary concept allows a considerable amount of work to be done in minimal time, effort and resources.

Marketers need to strategize for publishing content to this huge list of channels by treating content more like data. It’s no use conceptualizing content in the form of html pages, as this doesn’t apply to all forms of content available today. For example, through a smart speaker, you can book airline tickets, book a cab or pay your bills easily. The interaction with this conversational UI cannot be displayed through an html page as it has no visual display or screen.

It is important to understand that a smart speaker and a website do not understand and respond to the content in the same way.

Streamlining their ability in reaching out to their customers on their preferred device will allow enterprises to better scale their marketing efforts. Instead of html, enterprises need to transition towards structured content model by organizing digital content into independent fields so as to incorporate COPE across numerous channels.

On the other hand, the structured content approach could complicate an organization's digital strategy. This can lead to over dependence on Drupal as the platform for content distribution.

Drupal’s Solution to COPE

Drupal can provide a solution for your enterprise for content distribution to multiple channels by powering every instance of your digital system by adopting an API-first architecture.

Through API-first technique, the central web service would interact with a variety of applications to exchange data over a network. Drupal allows the API-first approach while decoupling the front end and using another cutting edge technology for the presentation.

Enterprises may implement a decoupled strategy to leverage Drupal as a service layer to drive complex digital ecosystems, or to provide front end teams with popular JavaScript framework capabilities or to use Drupal to power data to multiple touchpoints.

Drupal can provide the right solution to every problem, and an API-first approach could work when it is necessary to utilize technologies outside of the Drupal context.

Drupal gives the ability to make COPE a reality by providing the following:

• Fields - to present different information such as image, video, product, text, select list, etc on the website
• Content types - to make data more atomic for reuse
• Views - to create lists of content curated by content type
• Entity reference - to dynamically pull content from one page into another
• View modes - to present the information in different formats on different pages
• Services - to make information available to apps and feeds

API-first or decoupled architecture is considered among the most popular solution to create flawless digital experiences. The approach gives developers the flexibility to innovate as well as ensure future-proof builds that don’t require re-creating the entire feature.

Big names like Netflix have benefited from the decoupled approach in publishing content to every device which a user uses.

Drupal’s Distribution : Contenta

It’s often a challenge for non-drupalers to go for decoupled Drupal and enjoy the benefits of COPE as programming with decoupled Drupal is only for Drupal developers.

But, now the Drupal community has come up with a way to make it easier for them to leverage the power of decoupled drupal hassle free with Contenta.

Contenta is a stable API-first Drupal distribution adapted to make lives of non-Drupalers simpler and help them leverage Drupal 8’s outstanding capability for building decoupled application. With the help of built-in kits assembled with needed tools and configuration and demos, it can help to create cutting-edge apps in almost no time. After all decoupled Drupal should benefit everyone to its full potential.

Keeping in mind the expertise in the subject, Contenta is simple and easy to use along with easy to understand documentation to refer for help and is fully-equipped to build an entire decoupled application without any external help or dependency on a front-end technology.

You can take up any front-end technology to go for with Contenta. So if you’re a front-end developer and are in search of a powerful back-end CMS for that impressive app that you’re planning to develop, you’ll just need to install Contenta and see for the out-of-the-box collection of your preferred front-end powered app examples that Contenta delivers by default.

Srijan teams can help you empower your marketing ability to reach out to enlarged list of customers and leverage Contenta to build decoupled applications for your enterprise. Reach out to us with your requirements and let our experts work on your needs.