Jahia Web Glossary

A conversion rate optimization tactic that involves comparing two versions of content or visitor experience and determining which performs better. In Jahia jExperience, AB tests can be applied to pages or content items.  
In the science world, AB Testing is usually referred to as "Randomized Controlled Trials". 

In Jahia CMS, an absolute Area is an area that is reused across several pages, typically a parent page. When items inside an Absolute Area are modified, the change will be spread across all the places it is displayed. Content items inside an Absolute Area can either be edited on the page where the Area is referenced from, or in every page displaying that Area, depending on the configuration.

In Jahia CMS, an Area is a placeholder where editors can add and edit content items. Areas are defined by Developers, in the code of the template. 

In the context of a website, all of your visitors.
Note: When possible, avoid using the term "User," which usually conveys ambiguity.

In Jahia CMS, a category is a term organized in a dedicated tree structure, used to classify content.

For more information, please read the article Classifying content.

In Jahia CMS, a child is a content item (a node) that is below a given parent in the content repository. Consider it as a leaf inside the branch of a tree.

Classification is the activity to apply metadata to sort content and make it findable in a meaningful way, using tags, categories, keywords, or custom properties.

The association of a content item (based on a content type) and a view, so that it renders an HTML fragment for visitors. 

In Jahia CMS, the form to edit any content items (regular items, pages, folders, as well as media).

A folder that will host content items. Content inside folders is typically referenced or queried inside pages or used via API. A content folder can be limited to certain types only.

All objects stored in the content repository are content items. Content items are based on a content definition. In Jahia CMS, Pages, Folders, Categories, Sites, and many other objects are just content items with a specific definition. 

Developers sometimes use the word "Node" to refer to content items, both terms refer to the same concept. 

Software designed to build websites. A traditional CMS is usually composed of 4 parts: 

• User interfaces to input, save, and publish content
• Templating, the capability to transform content items into HTML pages
• Other web features (SEO, accessibility, ..)
• Platform capabilities allowing developers to deploy plugins, modules, themes, or custom templates (depending on the terminology used by the vendor)

In Jahia CMS, a content item of a specific type that points to another item (the source) in the content repository. This concept is similar to what you might know as an "alias" or a "symbolic link".

Where all content items are stored. In Jahia CMS, the content repository is split between workspaces and then by sites.

Developers may use more technical terms to refer to the Content Repository, such as "JCR".

In Jahia CMS, a Content Template defines a layout that makes content items (that are not considered as regular pages inside Jahia) displayable as a full page for the visitors. Content items that can be displayed as full pages are defined as "Main Resources". This is very useful to avoid having Jahia editors manage thousands of pages. Instead, they can rely on content templates.

A content type defines a structure for content items. It defines the "properties": if the content has a "title", a "description", a "birth date", "number of rooms", etc.. For instance, a content type "Job offering" might be helpful to add offers to our website. 

Declaration of a content type. A typical definition will include a namespace, a name, properties (fields) and other options that can be applied or activated on the content items based on this definition. Content definitions are written using a specific syntax and are saved as text files with .cnd extension

An action taken by a visitor or a customer that is considered as positive by your business. Examples: visit a pricing page, download a whitepaper, subscribe to a service, ... 

Percentage of visitors who realized an action compared to the number of visitors who were presented with that action. For instance: Number of visitors that filled a form / Number of visitors who saw the form.

Subpart of the Content Repository that stores all Content Items before they are published. The content of the default workspace is used for editing and preview. 

Concept invented by analysts to describe new evolutions in the enterprise CMS field. DXP emphasizes capabilities to integrate within an existing marketing stack. 

In Jahia CMS, text that will be used in user interfaces as the title of content items.

Field displayed in Content Editor (the form the edit content items) that only appears if a given value is selected in a previous field. 

A Dynamic Fieldset is the visual representation of a mixin being enabled when an editor selects a value. For instance, for a real estate website, if the author selects "house" for "home type" then a "garden size" field could appear. 

An interaction, tracked and stored by jExperience. An event is always associated with a visitor profile. Some events are collected by default by jExperience, such as page views or logins. Other events can be collected using configuration (forms, clicks) or custom code. 

UI component, displayed in Content Editor, for authors to edit a content property. 

Visual representation of a mixin, so it is a group of fields, as a mixin can be considered as a group of properties. 

Jahia Forms is a feature dedicated to business users, allowing them to build Forms and publish them on their website.

In Jahia jExperience, Goals are used to measure conversion rates; a value that shows how successful you are in meeting your business objectives. 

API using the GraphQL format. GraphQL allows using a query language that is known to provide good tolling for front-end developers. GraphQL is the recommended API to work with Jahia CMS.

Software to manage content. Unlike traditional CMS, headless CMSs offer no mechanism to convert content items into web pages, and rarely provide built-in tooling to manage websites. A Headless CMS is basicaly a repository of content with API to access that content. 

A module is a code package that can be deployed on the Jahia platform. Modules can be built in Java or in Javascript, and  can include a wide variety of resources:

• Content types definitions
• Page templates, content templates, and views to display content items
• Static assets (images, css, js, ..)
• Backend code, leveraging one of our many supported patterns (actions, filters, GraphQL extension, ..)
• UI extensions to enrich Jahia
• ... 

Attribute of a content item. Developers define properties when building content type definitions, and business users provide the values when they contribute content. For instance, "price" can be a property of the content type "real estate listing". 

In Jahia jExperience, an attribute of a profile, session or event. For instance, "number of children" could be a profile property.

A list of terms associated with a content item as meta information (metadata) that can be used to sort or retrieve content. In Jahia CMS, tags are shared by all languages.

Defines the layout of pages and main resources. Templates can include non-editable content and areas where editors can contribute. When creating a page, editors must select one template.

In Jahia CMS, a template set is a module defining a base package that will be used when creating a new website. A template set may include one or several templates, as well as content type definitions and views.

An alternative URL for a web page. In Jahia CMS, vanity URLs can be set manually by editors. A vanity URL can be set as canonical or ensure a redirection to the canonical. 

In Jahia CMS, a piece of code that transforms a content item stored inside the repository, into HTML. A content item can have several views so that it can be displayed in different ways depending on the context in which is is presented. Views can be written in Java JSP or in React JSX or TSX.
 

A condition based on time, device, or language, that will make a content item visible or not for the visitors.

A physical person that browse a website and that is not identified, or logged. 
Visitors access published content. 

Depending on the context, a visitor profile could either refer to: 

• The values of the profile properties for the visitor
• A record of all the data concerning a visitor (profile properties, sessions, and events)

A property of a content item holding a reference to another content item. 

A status applied on a content item or a page that indicates to other editors that the editing work is not finsihed and prevent publication until that status is removed.

In Jahia CMS, the validation process leading to the publication of content.

Subsection of the content repository. Jahia uses two workspaces: default (also called preview or edit) and live. The default workspace holds the content for editors and preview, before publication. The live workspace stores published items, from which pages are generated for visitors.