References in Content

The new advanced link management feature in Bloomreach Experience Manager (BrXM) is designed to enhance the visibility and management of references to documents, images and assets across components, pages and projects. This feature aims to support editors and authors in their daily tasks by providing better tracking. The next version of the feature will also provide more capabilities for workflow management for references.

Terminology

Content Items: Content items in BrXM include documents, images, assets, components, menu items, and pages, which can refer to each other in various ways, such as a document being used in a component or an image being included in a document field.

Reference in BrXM: In Bloomreach Experience Manager (BrXM), a reference is an internal link between content items, such as documents, images, or assets, and other components or pages within the platform. Please note that the feature only includes the direct first level references to or from a content item.  

What does this feature do?

The advanced link management feature allows users to:

• Track and manage where specific documents, images or assets are used across the platform.

• Identify the impact of changes made to a document, image or asset on related pages or components.

Benefits

The benefits of the advanced link management feature include:

• Improved visibility for documents and assets referenced in components, documents, and pages, facilitating easy tracking and management.

• Streamlined concurrent publication workflows for referenced documents, eliminating manual efforts and human mistakes.

• Increased efficiency and accuracy in content management processes, benefiting both editors and authors.

How to use it

1. Accessing the feature:

   • Navigate to the document, image or asset, or component you want to manage within BrXM.

   • Click on the "Show References" button in the “Document” menu  to open the new “References” interface.

2. Viewing references:

   • The interface will display the Referenced dialog with 3 tabs for content items that are referred to in the opened document, content items that the opened document refers to  and Site References of the opened document.

3. Understanding the references:

• Referred in: The content items that are directly refers to the opened document in one or more fields.

• Refers to: The content items that are directly referred to in the opened document in one or more fields.

• Site references: Components, menu items, pages and channel settings that are directly referring to the opened document.

 

• Details of Content Items in "Referred in" Tab:

• Name: The user-given name of the content item.

• Type: The type of the content item, which can include content types for documents, images, assets, specific component types, or menu items for site references.

• Status: The publication status of the referenced content item.

  • Published: Indicates that the document mentioned in the references is published and has a direct reference to the opened document.

  • Offline - Reference added: Indicates that the document mentioned in the references is offline and has a direct reference to the opened document.

  • Changed - Reference added: Indicates that the document is published but has unpublished changes where the reference to the opened document is newly added. The current live version has a reference to the opened document, so the status of the reference will change when the document is published.

  • Changed - Reference removed: Indicates that the document is published but has unpublished changes where the reference to the opened document is recently removed. The current live version has a reference to the opened document, so the status of the reference will change when the document is published

• Additional information for references in “Referred in Tab”:
  To see additional information related to each content item in the Referred in Tab, click on the dropdown button next to the content item.

  • Channel: This indicates the channel in BrXM that the content item belongs to.
    If the document is not directly referenced in any channel, a warning message will display: “Document is not part of any component, menu item or channel setting.”
    If the document is directly referenced in a channel in multiple locations, a warning message will display: “Document found in x other locations - Go to the document to see its site references.” By clicking on the link in the message, you can open the document in references and see its site references from the References menu.

  • Project: This shows the project that the document in references is part of. Currently, the feature only works for the “Core” project, meaning it does not take into account the version of the document that is included in a project. This limitation will be eliminated in the next release.

  • Location: If the content item is used in a channel, this will show the location of the content item in the channel.

  • Translations: This shows the available translations of the document.

  • Path: This is the direct CMS URL path of the document.

 

• Details of Content Items in "Refers to" Tab:

• Name: The user-given name of the content item.

• Type: The type of the content item, which can include content types for documents, images, assets, specific component types, or menu items for site references.

• Status: The publication status of the referenced documents. 

 

• Details of Content Items in “Site references” Tab:

• Name: The user-given name of the content item.

• Type: The type of the content item, which can include content types for documents, images, assets, specific component types, or menu items for site references.

• Additional information for references in “Referred in Tab”:
  To see additional information related to each content item in the Referred in Tab, click on the dropdown button next to the content item.

  • Channel: This indicates the channel in BrXM that the content item belongs to. 

  • Project: This shows the project that the content item in references is part of. Currently, the feature only works for the “Core” project, meaning it does not take into account the version of the content item that is included in a project. This limitation will be eliminated in the next release.

  • Location: This indicates the location of the content item in the channel.

  • Variant: This indicates the available variants of the component. 

Limitations

• Projects Feature Exclusion: The versions of the documents that are included in a Project are not included in the 16.2 release. This means that any document version created within projects will not be managed by this feature in this version. This limitation will be eliminated in the upcoming release.

• Components Variant Exclusion: Component variants are not included in the 16.2 release. This means that the references from any component variants except Default variant will not be included in the references. This limitation will be eliminated in the upcoming release.

• Component References via Query: Components that reference a document through a query are not included in the references. This limitation means that if a component uses a query to reference a document, it will not be tracked or displayed by the advanced link management feature.This limitation will be eliminated in the upcoming release.

These limitations should be taken into account when using the advanced link management feature to ensure a smooth and accurate experience.