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Author-it Aspect

Author-it Aspect is a web server application that delivers customized web content to users. Aspect renders conditional content created in Author-it in real time based on user profiles.

Applications:

  • Dynamic user assistance
  • Policies and procedures
  • Knowledge bases

To enable customized views of content, you begin by creating object variants for content in Author-it. Variants can include information such as:

  • User role
  • Location
  • Product configuration
  • Operating systems
  • Translated content

When you publish to Aspect, content is stored in the Aspect database and delivered through a web browser or a SharePoint web part.

You control how Aspect content is presented to users:

  • Authenticate users against Active Directory roles:
    • Display options are preset based on user profiles.
    • Hide sensitive content based on roles.
  • Provide user-selectable options for customized displays.
  • Provide all content but allow users to filter search results.

Aspect also enables you to update individual site components instead of republishing an entire site. Author-it books or subbooks are mapped to the Aspect site structure; to update a part of the site, you simply publish any book or subbook that contains updates to Aspect. The Aspect site updates immediately (staged updates are an option). Connections among different parts of site (such as links and favorites) are rendered in real time, automatically adjusting to the display settings of each user.

The Aspect rendering engine includes advanced web features such as:

  • Embedded Lucene .NET server-side search
  • Unique URLs for all pages
  • Feedback and email links
  • Breadcrumb navigation
  • Home, Back, Forward, Next, Previous, Favorites, Print controls
  • Options for editing source content
  • Web services API (SOAP, JSON, …)

The Aspect architecture provides separate layers for data and rendering, to support development of customized authentication methods and rendering engines.

SDI provides support for Aspect in the following areas:

  • Training
  • Aspect configuration
  • Modeling Author-it content variants
  • Project support
  • Customization & development services:
    • Custom rendering engines
    • Additional authentication methods

For an example of an Aspect Knowledge Base, see the Author-it Knowledge Center.

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