Configuration vs Content (vs System)

Bloomreach Experience Manager’s configuration management mechanism divides the data stored in the repository into three categories:

1. Configuration

2. Content

3. System

Configuration and Content are defined in Terminology. System data is data “owned by the code”, and typically used to maintain some state across time or (scaled-out) CMS instances. For example, JCR lock properties and date or sequence number properties indicating to what extent processing of events has already occurred in the cluster, fall into the System category.

The Configuration Model specifies a tree (of nodes and properties) of all configuration data known to the deployed Bloomreach Experience Manager implementation. Consider this tree the “backbone” of the repository. For any extension point of this tree (i.e. a new property or a new child node), the parent node existing in the Configuration Model specifies if the extension should be treated as configuration, content or system data. Configuration data can be managed in a very fine-grained manner, content data in a more coarse-grained manner, and system data is not managed at all through the Configuration Management mechanisms.