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Brandon Eccles

Brandon Eccles is a Product Marketing Manager at Contentstack, where he leverages his background in customer and product experience to help articulate and deliver our platform’s value. A tech enthusiast with a love for building and learning, he's found a home at Contentstack. His prior experience at Pluralsight brings a unique understanding of today’s tech skills landscape, harmonizing well with the forward-thinking and innovative approach to technology that Contentstack is based upon. Passionate about composability, Brandon appreciates a well-architected tech stack as much as a complex LEGO build.

Posts by Brandon Eccles

Oct 01, 2024 | 5 min. read

The visual builder revolution: how Contentstack is redefining content editing for the modern enterprise

The CMS landscape has evolved significantly over the years, starting with traditional CMS platforms that offered visual editing capabilities tailored to marketers and content teams. These tools were user-friendly but lacked scalability and flexibility, which led to the rise of headless CMS solutions. Headless CMS platforms solved the issues of scalability, omnichannel delivery, and responsiveness but at the cost of making content editing more complex and reliant on developers. As headless CMS solutions started to gain traction, thanks to advancements in web technology like web APIs, JSON, and scalable cloud infrastructure, Contentstack emerged to address the challenges that come with traditional CMS platforms. By embracing these modern technologies, Contentstack created a solution that tackles the issues of scalability, reliability, and omnichannel delivery, while also catering to the needs of marketers and content teams. Contentstack offered previewing capabilities early on, allowing marketers to see how their changes would appear live before publishing. Now, with the introduction of Contentstack’s Visual Builder, the platform provides an intuitive visual editing experience that marketers have been missing, in a way that’s grounded in the flexibility and power of a headless architecture. For those using or considering traditional CMS If you’re working with a traditional or monolithic CMS, you’re probably familiar with the convenience of a visual drag-and-drop (or WYSIWYG) editing and page-building experience. But you’ve likely also run into problems with scaling, performance, and keeping your brand experiences consistent across the ever-growing number of digital channels. These systems often struggle to keep up as your needs grow or as you try to adapt to new technologies. Contentstack’s Visual Builder offers a path forward, allowing you to maintain the visual editing experience that content editors prefer while gaining the scalability and flexibility of a headless CMS. This means your marketing teams can continue making updates and changes directly on the page without sacrificing the speed, control, and performance needed to support a growing digital presence. For those using or considering other headless CMS solutions If you’re already using or looking into other headless CMS options, you might have found that while some offer visual editing, they often fall short when it comes to the infrastructure, stability, and features needed for enterprise content teams. Many of these systems started as visual page builders or simple headless CMS platforms, but they can struggle with things like workflows, governance, permissions, or developer-focused needs like deep API integrations, robust SDKs, and quality documentation that are essential for large-scale enterprise operations. Contentstack was built from the ground up as a headless CMS, with a solid, scalable foundation that supports enterprise needs. Adding the Visual Builder to that foundation means you get the best of both worlds: structured control and scalability, combined with a visual editing experience that lets marketers and content teams make changes or create new pages using drag-and-drop blocks—all without compromising on brand consistency or breaking layouts. Why Contentstack is the ideal visual headless CMS for modern enterprises Contentstack offers the best of both worlds: the scalability, flexibility, and reliability of a true headless CMS combined with the intuitive visual editing experience that marketing and content teams need. The Visual Builder allows teams to create and edit content with the ease they were accustomed to in traditional CMSs but with the added control and structure necessary for consistency and reliability at scale. The Visual Builder experience can be broken down into three core aspects: Previewing: In the Timeline experience, you can see how your content will appear at any given point in time. This makes it easy to plan and visualize how different pages or even your entire website will look based on upcoming releases, campaigns, or other scheduled updates. For those using Personalize, you can also see how the content or website will appear to different audience segments, giving you a complete picture of how your content will reach and engage users. Editing: With live editing, marketers and content teams can make real-time, in-line updates directly on the page. This allows them to easily make updates on the fly like text changes, image swaps, or minor adjustments to other elements—and then see exactly how it’ll all appear live before publishing, all without requiring developer support. Building: The Visual Builder includes drag-and-drop blocks, empowering users to construct and customize layouts with flexibility and control. With role-based permissions and governance controls, you can be sure that only the right team members have access to edit and manage content, keeping everything on track and on-brand. What really sets Contentstack’s Visual Building experience apart is how it brings together other platform capabilities in one place. The AI Assistant, integrated directly into the Visual Builder, helps generate, revise, or fine-tune content in real-time, all while staying true to your brand voice using Brand Kit. It also connects with Personalize, allowing you to include any selected audiences and their associated details directly in your AI prompts. This means you can generate content that’s tailored to specific audience segments, making it easier to craft variations that resonate with each target group. This integration with Personalize carries over into the visual building experience itself. Embedded into Visual Builder, Personalize lets content teams create experiments and tailored content variations, and allows them to see exactly how that content will appear to different audience segments. And lastly, Automate is a built-in visual workflow builder that makes it easy to automate content processes, connect with third-party tools, and streamline workflows across your systems—all without writing a single line of code. Contentstack’s approach combines a headless, API-first foundation with a visual editing experience that offers the right balance of flexibility and control. It’s the only visual headless CMS that includes built-in AI-powered content generation, a personalization and experimentation engine, and a fully equipped automation platform. This makes Contentstack not just capable of meeting the needs of developers looking for structured, scalable solutions, and marketers who need speed and flexibility, but it also helps you rethink what’s possible and deliver powerful, personalized digital experiences at scale. See it live If you’d like to see it in action or have questions answered live, join our upcoming Visual Builder small group demo on October 17th. Register here. To stay informed on all our product updates, visit the Contentstack Pulse page.

Jul 02, 2024 | 5 min. read

Timeline: Visually plan, preview and prepare for future content changes

Hey, content managers! Have you ever wondered how a product page will appear to different audiences based on their behavior data, or how a localized campaign will look once translated and rolled out across different regions? Or perhaps you've tried to plan out your content calendar and found it challenging to figure out when and how different pieces of content might overlap or interfere with each other. The complexities of managing the current and future state of content in a CMS can easily feel overwhelming, especially when dealing with multiple teams, personalized content or competing initiatives. We initially developed the Release Preview app to address these challenges, which provided basic details about upcoming content releases. This app helped teams see what content was scheduled to go live and understand the impact of those changes. Releasing it through our Marketplace allowed us to quickly build, experiment and iterate based on user feedback. Now, we’re bringing this functionality directly into the platform with Timeline, an integrated, interactive timeline that lets you see and manage the future state of your content. Consequently, the Release Preview app will no longer receive updates or support. With Timeline, you get a better way to visually preview, compare and review updates — keeping your content strategy on track and in sync. Preview With Timeline, we're revisiting how you preview content altogether. Whether you're looking to see how future updates will appear, interact with a personalized version of your entire website, or quickly check how a specific entry looks before it goes live, Timeline makes visualizing changes straightforward and easy. The visual timeline at the top of the screen displays all your scheduled updates, while the interactive content below allows you to navigate your site as if it's that future date. You can add new previews, adjust existing ones, and interact with your content in a simulated environment that makes it easy to see and understand how your content will appear under any given circumstances or at any point in time, providing you with a complete view of your content strategy. This leads to one of the key enhancements we included in the Timeline experience: the ability to compare different versions of your content side by side. Compare This is especially useful for large migrations or updates where reviewing and Q&A are critical. Instead of sharing expiring links or juggling multiple environments, you can simply navigate the timeline, select different versions, and see any changes clearly highlighted. This streamlines the review process and makes it easier for team members to provide feedback and collaborate on updates. Personalize Personalization has long been a challenge due to its complexity and the scale required for successful implementation. At Contentstack, we’re addressing this with our new Personalize product, along with our other platform enhancements in AI and automation, making personalization more achievable at scale. With Timeline, you’ll be able to preview content based on audience data, enabling you to see how different segments of your audience will experience your content over time. Interested in learning more about Personalize or joining the Early Access program? Sign up here. Improve your content planning with Timeline Whether you're previewing future states, comparing versions, or planning personalized content, Timeline helps you keep everything in sync and ensures your updates are delivered as intended. To learn more about the new experience, check out the recording of our recent small group demo on Timeline to see it all in action. To stay informed on all our product updates, visit the Contentstack Pulse page.

Jun 05, 2024 | 5 min. read

Spring 2024 platform recap – ContentCon edition: What’s new and what’s coming for Contentstack

Fresh from the stage at ContentCon! We’re announcing a bunch of exciting updates and we’re thrilled to share them with you. This event is a highlight for us, providing an opportunity to interact with our customers, hear about their successes and showcase the exciting things we’ve been working on. In this post, we’ll recap the latest releases—all designed to help you gain an edge by delivering high-powered personalized experiences at scale. Personalize (Early Access) Personalization has been broken for so long due to the scale required to make it effective. Personalize is a new product that changes the game by enabling personalization at scale through the power of AI, seamlessly integrating into the content lifecycle. As a core part of our platform, our CMS is now even more powerful with Personalize, helping you tell the right stories to the right people at the right time. Segment audiences: Easily create and manage audience segments based on various criteria like location, interests, and purchase history. Deliver targeted content: Serve personalized content to each segment, enhancing engagement and relevance. A/B testing: Experiment with different content variants to optimize performance, measure conversion metrics, and determine the best-performing content. Learn more about Personalize. Contentstack AI Successfully achieving personalization without AI is near impossible. We’ve been experimenting with AI capabilities for a while, encountering and learning from many of the same challenges and opportunities our customers face. This has led us to develop an AI experience that truly supports our customers’ needs. Discover more about Contentstack AI on our website. Brand Kit (Available Now) Uncontrolled AI content can produce off-brand and poor digital experiences. Brand Kit addresses this by applying brand controls to govern how AI generates content so that it aligns with your brand's voice and style. Knowledge Vault: A centralized repository for brand-specific information the AI uses to supplement its knowledge and ground its responses, making them more relevant and accurate. Voice Profiles: Customizable profiles that guide the AI in maintaining consistent tone, style, and language. Interested in seeing Brand Kit in action or learning how to set up a Knowledge Vault and create Voice Profiles yourself? Be sure to check out our small group demo on Brand Kit, happening on June 13th. Register here. AI Connectors (Available Now) Once you've created great content, incorporate AI into your workflows with our AI Connectors for Automate. These connectors enable powerful, on-brand automated actions. AI Accelerator (Available Now) Implementing AI can be challenging. The AI Accelerator program combines access to Brand Kit, Automate, and AI connectors, along with expert-led sessions and educational resources from Contentstack Academy—all to fast-track your AI adoption by helping you identify practical use cases and deploy AI successfully and safely within 90 days. Learn more about the AI Accelerator program. Contentstack Academy (Available Now) As part of the AI Accelerator, Contentstack Academy offers specialized AI courses, along with a wide range of other courses about our platform. This newly refreshed academy provides self-paced learning courses to help you maximize your platform familiarity. Explore Contentstack Academy. Google Cloud Hosting Support (Available Now) That’s not all though! Because Contentstack now supports hosting on Google Cloud. This new option allows you to host your Contentstack data on Google Cloud, providing greater flexibility and scalability for your CMS needs. Learn more These updates are all about gaining an experience edge and maintaining brand relevancy by helping you deliver personalized experiences at scale, powered by AI. To stay informed about all the latest updates and our product roadmap, visit the Contentstack Pulse page. Also, don’t miss our upcoming Spring Recap ContentCon Edition webinar, where we’ll dive deeper into these updates and more. Register for the webinar here.

May 07, 2024 | 5 min. read

Transforming reusable AI prompts into powerful custom actions in Contentstack

Introduction It's a familiar struggle: you finally nail that perfect AI-generated response, but then find replicating that success consistently across different scenarios is both frustrating and time-consuming. While AI is supposed to streamline operations and save time, the reality often involves cycling through multiple rounds of revisions to achieve the desired quality. That's exactly why we created custom actions. Because once you’ve crafted the perfect AI prompt that delivers spot-on results, it’s natural that you’d want to replicate that success without starting from scratch each time. Custom Actions in Contentstack allow you to capture these winning prompts, and reuse them anywhere in your content to achieve consistent results. This not only saves time, but it also improves the repeatability and quality of your AI-driven content, ensuring you spend less time tweaking and more time creating. What are custom actions? Custom actions in Contentstack's AI Assistant allow you to enhance your content editing process with reusable AI prompts. These prompts, configured in the AI Assistant settings, enable you to create specialized actions that can be applied to text fields within the Entry Editor, like adding keyword tags for SEO, personalizing the content of a title field, or even expanding upon that title to generate the body of a blog post. Each custom action contains the following components: Custom Name: The unique identifier for the action. Icon: A visual icon associated with the action. You can upload your own or use an icon from our Venus 2.0 design library SVG icons, which help maintain a consistent platform look and feel. Prompt Text: The specific instructions or commands sent to the AI. Sub-prompts: Additional options within the action that allow for more detailed commands or adjustments. These actions are particularly useful when you need to apply consistent modifications or enhancements to content, like adjusting tone, style, or formatting according to predefined standards. They’re stored and are available for use in the authoring experience in any content entry text fields, making them a powerful tool, especially when it comes to maintaining consistency in large-scale content operations. To simplify the process, custom actions can be imported into your Contentstack account using a JSON configuration file. I know what you’re thinking—and the answer is yes! We have included those config files for each of the use cases we’ll be covering. We’ll begin by exploring a custom action that can be used to enforce a consistent brand voice across your content so that it aligns with your unique style and tone. Custom Action #1: Enforce brand voice After working with hundreds of iconic brands, we've learned what it takes to maintain brand relevancy and superiority amid the constant barrage of consumer content. A unique brand voice not only distinguishes you from competitors but also ensures your content resonates authentically with your audience. The challenge, however, lies in preventing your content from sounding generic, especially when AI tools are employed. Too often, AI-generated content can miss the mark—producing text that, while technically correct, lacks the nuances of your brand’s specific tone and style. So we created an "Enforce brand voice" custom action. The prompt contains detailed instructions and brand-specific guidelines that guide the AI to ensure its outputs align with your desired brand voice such as maintaining a conversational and friendly tone, avoiding jargon, and adhering to style particulars like AP Style and e-commerce hyphenation.The config file that we’ve included for this action includes areas labeled for personalization—prompt text, tone specifics, and style guidelines—which you should adjust to reflect your org's unique voice before implementing. JSON config file Custom Action #2: SEO tagging with company-specific keywords One of the misconceptions about AI in SEO is that it can autonomously optimize content with any keywords. However, this often leads to content being tagged with generic or irrelevant keywords, which doesn't help in ranking your content effectively. SEO optimization can be both expensive and time-consuming, and while many wish to rely on AI for help, there’s hesitation due to these challenges. The "Tag with company-specific keywords" custom action is designed to address this problem. It enables a more controlled approach by directing the AI to only use pre-selected, company-specific keywords that are directly relevant to your business and audience. This controlled approach allows for more precise and effective SEO practices. The specifics of the keyword setup can be adjusted in the config file to better suit the types of content your business produces. JSON config file Custom Action #3: Create on-brand product descriptions Creating accurate product descriptions that reflect your brand's voice can be challenging with AI. Unlike general content, product descriptions need precise language that aligns closely with how your brand communicates. This becomes more complex as the diversity of your product offerings increases, each requiring a different description style. The "Create On-Brand Product Descriptions" custom action helps address this issue. It provides a framework for AI to generate descriptions that match your company's voice and style. Additionally, it includes sub-prompts that allow you to fine-tune the descriptions based on the type of product. The configuration file provided as an example includes settings for a technical services offering, a product offering, or an accelerator program. This makes it useful for handling a range of products that may cater to different audiences or needs. JSON config file Conclusion For a closer look at how to leverage custom actions in Contentstack to create consistent AI content at scale, join us at the upcoming AI Custom Actions small group demo where we'll showcase custom actions live in the product. Don't miss out! Register now. For all of the latest platform updates and enhancements, check out (and bookmark) the Contentstack Pulse page.

Apr 09, 2024 | 5 min. read

Contentstack + Google Cloud: More cloud power for the category-leading composable DXP

Overview We've announced a new partnership with Google, expanding our hosting capabilities to include one of the world's leading cloud platforms. This partnership introduces Google Cloud as another option for hosting your Contentstack data, alongside our existing support for AWS and Azure. By leveraging Google Cloud's infrastructure and services, we aim to provide our users with more choices for scalable, secure hosting solutions. Why it matters This partnership with Google Cloud enhances Contentstack in several key areas: Google Cloud hosting support Google Cloud provides secure and scalable hosting, ensuring that Contentstack data is both accessible and protected. Leveraging Google Cloud's global infrastructure, Contentstack provides users with reliable content management and delivery capabilities that are optimized for high performance at scale. Contentstack in the Google Cloud Marketplace Contentstack is now available through the Google Cloud Marketplace, streamlining the discovery and procurement process for Google Cloud users. This enhancement allows for the direct addition of Contentstack to their suite of tools, integrating seamlessly with Google Cloud billing. This move simplifies the financial management aspect by consolidating Contentstack charges into your Google Cloud invoice, thus easing the integration of Contentstack into the Google Cloud ecosystem. Additional Google ecosystem details The partnership extends beyond hosting to incorporate more from the Google ecosystem, providing advanced AI functionalities and seamless integrations that enrich the Contentstack platform experience. Contentstack AI Assistant with Google Vertex: With added support for Google Vertex AI, we’ve expanded the range of language models available for the AI Assistant, an in-app toolbar that adds generative AI capabilities directly into the authoring experience, offering a powerful way to craft content with speed and relevance. It features customized actions that can be saved and reused, facilitating consistency in brand voice or variations based on audience, industry, or any other criteria.As the first CMS to offer a fully integrated AI Assistant experience, Contentstack enables real-time content enhancement, from translating entries and generating summaries to brainstorming new content ideas. Discover how to expedite content creation and refine operations with generative AI by exploring the AI Assistant, available for install into your stack for free from the Contentstack Marketplace. Google Connectors for Contentstack Automate: Improve your content operations through automation with connectors for Google services that are available within Contentstack Automate: Google Vertex Connector: Tap into the capabilities of Google's Vertex AI within Automate workflows for content generation, operational tasks, and more. Google PubSub Connector: Utilize Google PubSub to implement real-time messaging, data exchanges, and event-based actions within Automate workflows. Google Analytics App: This app integration allows for a deeper analysis of your content's performance directly within Contentstack, helping inform your content strategy with actionable insights. SSO for Google Workspace: Make logging in easier, faster and more secure for your team with single sign-on through Google Workspace. Looking forward We're excited about the future of our partnership with Google Cloud and the opportunities it brings. Our goal is to continuously expand the range of integrations, offering more connectors and apps, and enabling you to leverage the full power of your Google services alongside the Contentstack platform. By doing so, we aim to enhance your ability to create, manage and deliver digital experiences with greater efficiency, innovation and scale. For more information on this partnership and how it can benefit your digital experience initiatives, visit our Google Cloud partner page.

Feb 06, 2024 | 5 min. read

End-of-Year 2023 Platform Recap: Contentstack’s latest innovations and what’s ahead

As 2023 nears its end, it’s a good time to reflect on Contentstack's progress and achievements, particularly in our mission to provide brands with innovative tools for crafting digital experiences that keep them at the forefront of brand relevancy. Our path has been one of continuous growth and user empowerment, evolving from a foundational CMS to a robust, composable digital experience platform. This year, we've not only improved our core CMS capabilities but also broadened the offerings and capabilities within our Marketplace and Automation Hub, and introduced Developer Hub, a new experience that simplifies custom solution development for Contentstack. In line with our vision to streamline digital content management, we introduced Launch – a new front-end hosting solution designed to facilitate swift and effortless content deployment. Let's explore the key platform highlights from the past year. CMS Features Streamlined Data Structure with Advanced Taxonomy With Advanced Taxonomy, managing complex data structures is no longer daunting. Particularly beneficial for large enterprises, this tool redefines how content is categorized and retrieved, making data management more intuitive and efficient. It's ideal for sectors like e-commerce and media, where organizing a vast array of products or articles is crucial. Learn about Advanced Taxonomy. Content Creation with AI Assistant This year marked the general availability of our AI Assistant, bringing the power of generative AI to the point of content creation. The AI Assistant can be supported by a number of available AI vendors and language models, including OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Bedrock, offering brands the flexibility to leverage the appropriate AI technology according to their content strategies. Explore the AI Assistant. Live Preview with GraphQL Support Combining the precision of GraphQL with the intuitiveness of Live Preview, we've made a significant leap in content management this year. Our enhanced Live Preview feature now fully supports GraphQL, allowing teams to see real-time content changes across platforms with accuracy. This advancement is crucial for developers and marketers, ensuring optimal content presentation across all digital touchpoints. Get started with Live Preview for GraphQL. In-platform Help Center Bringing documentation, FAQs, and guides directly into the user workflow experience, our in-platform Help Center leverages AI to help users find what they’re looking for fast. It delivers helpful steps, documentation details, or quick answers to questions, ensuring users have the right information at the right time. Discover more about the embedded platform Help Center. Marketplace Features Rapid Deployment with Content Model Templates Our Marketplace now features Content Model Templates, an all new asset type offering pre-defined content structures for rapid deployment. From blog layouts to product listings, these templates provide ready-to-use blueprints for rapid content creation, enabling users to quickly launch projects and maintain brand consistency. Learn about Content Model Templates. Strategic Planning with Release Preview App The Release Preview App is your strategic partner in content scheduling. It allows content teams to visually plan and preview their releases, ensuring that every piece of content aligns with your broader digital strategy. This app is especially useful for campaign managers and strategists who need to coordinate multiple content releases simultaneously. Explore the Release Preview App. Custom App Creation with Developer Hub Now generally available on Contentstack, Developer Hub provides a user-friendly interface for teams to easily create and manage custom applications, making it an ideal tool for developers and partners looking to enhance or extend the platform experience with personalized integrations and capabilities, whether for internal or public use. Discover more about Developer Hub. Automation Hub Features Streamlining Workflows with Automation Hub Automation Hub continues to grow, introducing repeat paths and conditional logic for more complex robust processes. Paired with support for new AI connectors like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Bedrock, it's transforming routine tasks into intelligent, automated workflows. Explore Automation Hub. Launch Features Go Global with Contentstack Launch Contentstack Launch, now available on Microsoft Azure EU infrastructure, represents a significant leap in our content management journey. It caters to global businesses, offering efficient tools and a user-friendly interface for managing diverse digital experiences. Learn about Contentstack Launch. Conclusion: Looking Ahead to What’s Next Looking ahead to the upcoming year, our focus remains committed on helping brands maintain their digital relevancy by improving the way teams create and manage their digital experiences. Stay tuned and visit the platform updates page for more innovative features and enhancements designed to make your journey with Contentstack more impactful and productive. Thank you for being part of our journey this year, and here's to a future of continued innovation and success!

Jan 09, 2024 | 3 min. read

Accelerate custom app development with boilerplates

Introduction The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and with it, platforms need to offer customizable, adaptable solutions. This is where Contentstack's Developer Hub steps in, especially as it approaches its General Availability (GA) launch later this month. Here, the spotlight is on our app boilerplates – essential building blocks that streamline developing and deploying custom applications that extend the Contentstack platform and its capabilities. Platform extension challenges Coming up with custom solutions to tailor CMS or digital experience platform functionality to an organization's specific needs is often a daunting task. It involves piecing together various components, each with its own set of technical intricacies and maintenance challenges. Developers frequently find themselves in a juggling act, trying to integrate disparate APIs, manage complex codebases, all without any sacrifices to platform performance. These "band-aid" solutions, while necessary for functionality, can lead to a tangle of code that's hard to maintain and scale. The effort to make these platforms behave and perform as required comes with significant overhead, often diverting attention from innovation to troubleshooting and upkeep. Faced with these challenges, Contentstack's Developer Hub provides a streamlined and effective solution for simplifying custom app development. App boilerplates: The fast-track to custom development Contentstack’s Developer Hub introduces app boilerplates as a transformative tool in custom application development. These boilerplates are designed to simplify the process, providing pre-configured settings and functionalities that allow developers to focus on crafting unique features and integrations. Let’s explore the specific boilerplates and their impact on developing custom solutions. Generic app boilerplate The Generic App Boilerplate is a versatile foundation suited for various applications. It provides a flexible starting point for developers to create solutions that require a mix of custom functionalities and integrations. This boilerplate is ideal for apps requiring unique user interfaces or specialized content management features. Its modular nature allows for the creation of diverse applications, serving as a foundation for Marketplace apps like the AI Assistant, which shows up as a custom field within the entry editor experience and equips users with the power of generative AI right at the point of content creation, and all within the Contentstack platform. Ecommerce boilerplate Focused on the needs of online retail, the eCommerce Boilerplate streamlines the creation of custom eCommerce solutions. It offers essential tools and integrations for building seamless online shopping experiences, handling product catalogs, and integrating with payment gateways. Developers can leverage this boilerplate to address retail challenges, from customer journey optimization to inventory management. This boilerplate is the backbone for Marketplace apps such as Salesforce Commerce Cloud, commercetools, and BigCommerce, showcasing its utility in creating efficient eCommerce platforms. DAM boilerplate The DAM Boilerplate is tailored for managing digital assets. It provides robust tools for effectively organizing, tagging, and distributing digital content. Whether handling large media libraries or integrating with other systems for asset delivery, this boilerplate simplifies the complexities associated with digital asset management. It’s the core of Marketplace apps like Brandfolder, Bynder, Cloudinary, and Aprimo, demonstrating its effectiveness in enhancing asset management capabilities within the Contentstack ecosystem. Getting started with boilerplates The significance of app boilerplates in custom app development cannot be overstated, especially as we witness the GA launch of Developer Hub. These tools mark a notable advancement in Contentstack's developer experience. For developers keen to explore these boilerplates, comprehensive documentation is available: Generic App Boilerplate Documentation eCommerce Boilerplate Documentation DAM Boilerplate Documentation Additionally, you can find more about Developer Hub and its functionalities in the Developer Hub Documentation. Whether aiming for a simple UI enhancement or a complex integrated solution, these resources guide you through a seamless development journey. Conclusion We hope the introduction of app boilerplates transforms how developers interact with and extend the Contentstack platform. As we celebrate the GA launch of Developer Hub, we invite you to dive in and begin developing innovative custom solutions faster with app boilerplates. Join us for an upcoming small group demo on February 15th, where we'll introduce Developer Hub and all it has to offer. This is an excellent opportunity to explore custom app development with Contentstack, enabling you to tailor and extend the platform precisely to your needs. Register now.

Oct 17, 2023 | 3 min. read

Contentstack and the future of AI in digital experience platforms

Introduction The role of AI in shaping digital experiences is a subject of ongoing discussion and interest. A recent Gartner report, How to Realize Value From AI in Key WCM and DXP Use Cases, provides valuable insights into some key areas where AI can make a significant impact on Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs). In this post, we'll explore three of these areas and discuss Contentstack's approach to addressing the challenges and opportunities they present. 1. Content Generation & Experience Composition Gartner's Take Gartner emphasizes that AI can automate content creation and management, making it efficient, relevant, and engaging. However, the underlying challenge lies in stitching content together across disparate systems and maintaining the human touch. Contentstack’s response Gartner's insights pose a real challenge: How can AI be leveraged to create scalable, compelling, and brand-consistent content? To address this, we introduced the AI Assistant, now generally available from our Marketplace. It utilizes AI models to assist in various content generation tasks, such as creating summaries, outlines, and headlines. Gartner also mentions the importance of underlying content metadata and how its impact on effective content generation at scale cannot be overstated. The AI Assistant is more than just an intelligent widget that can generate prompts; it’s been specifically designed for use in a headless CMS, leveraging its understanding of and access to content models and other platform details. Moreover, our commitment to versatility stands strong. Contentstack believes in offering choice. That's why we’ve expanded our AI vendor support, offering a range of AI models to power the AI assistant beyond OpenAI’s ChatGPT. These models, including those from our recently released Amazon Bedrock integration, such as AI21 Labs, Anthropic's Claude, and Amazon's Titan, provide flexibility and choice for enterprises with unique content generation needs. Addressing Gartner's concerns about maintaining brand voice, our AI Assistant features Custom Commands. This allows users to create bespoke prompts tailored to their brand's voice and specific platform configurations, ensuring that any AI-generated content is relevant and resonates with the brand's unique identity. Building on this foundation, we’re excited to share what’s next—On-brand Generative AI—enabling the AI Assistant to not only generate content at scale but craft it in alignment with a brand’s voice and tone. 2. DX Delivery & Presentation Gartner's Take Gartner highlights the rise of new DX channels like AR/VR, mixed reality, and IoT devices, which require uniquely tailored content presentation. Machine learning-based presentation is becoming the new standard. Contentstack's response We recognize the need for adaptive content delivery and presentation, which is why we've been incorporating AI into Automation Hub. This enables intelligent automation of content workflows and other related processes. For instance, you could create an automation that automatically tags content based on its attributes and context. These tags can then trigger the content to be sent to specific platforms, whether it's social media, mobile apps, or a targeted newsletter, ensuring that the right content reaches the right audience at the right time. Furthermore, when combined with Contentstack's front-end hosting tool, Launch, it plays a pivotal role in crafting smart workflows that can automate the delivery of digital experiences to all audiences and channels, regardless of scale or complexity. 3. Personalization & Optimization Gartner's Take Gartner's report highlights that AI, particularly machine learning, is set to revitalize the field of personalization. It enhances traditional rule-based methods by offering a deeper, more individualized understanding of customer needs across the entire DX lifecycle. However, the report also notes the challenge of maintaining accurate and unbiased content classification. Contentstack's response One way that we’re preparing to advance AI-driven personalization is through our upcoming release of On-brand Generative AI. This technology utilizes retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to anchor AI-generated content within the parameters of a customizable 'brand vault.' Managed by the organization, this vault informs the content produced by both the AI Assistant and Automation Hub, supporting a host of various use cases, including: GenAI personalization: Automatically target segments with GenAI. AI prompt chaining: Create complex yet consistent AI responses. AI analysis: Analyze logs, data, or schema and send reports. Fact checking: Use external sources to fact and quality check. Multi-source augmentation: Supplement AI interactions with data from external systems. Semantic source data: Create structured data for AI to ingest & learn. Dev intelligence: Code suggestions, checking, and suggestions. Project monitoring: Track progress and predict bottlenecks with AI analysis. Smart QA processes: Use AI to evaluate incongruencies in data and send alerts. Conclusion The Gartner report serves as a valuable guide for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the integration of AI into DXPs. At Contentstack, we're committed to evolving our platform to meet these challenges and seize these opportunities. Our ongoing work in AI—from our AI Assistant and Automation Hub to the forthcoming On-Brand Generative AI capabilities—are a reflection of this commitment. As we continue to innovate, we aim to set new benchmarks in helping our customers deliver exceptional digital experiences at scale.

Aug 15, 2023 | 5 min. read

Better Together: Leveraging Automation Hub with other Contentstack products

Since its release, Contentstack's Automation Hub has been helping digital experience teams introduce automation into their daily operations and workflows. This powerful tool is doing more than just simplifying complex workflows — it's also driving huge value for our customers. It's enabling them to create, manage, and deploy content more efficiently than ever before, transforming how they engage with their audiences. But the magic happens when Automation Hub is combined with other Contentstack products. In this post, we’ll explore how to unlock new levels of efficiency and innovation by pairing Automation Hub with AI Assistant, Marketplace, and Launch to create richer, more impactful digital experiences. Automation Hub + AI Assistant Although Automation Hub and AI Assistant usually live at separate ends of the content creation process (AI Assistant helps craft and edit content during the creation process, whereas Automation Hub typically enhances content after it has been created), they can enhance each other extremely well.  During the content creation process, AI Assistant brings the power of Artificial Intelligence into the editing process to help writers and editors be more efficient and creative. But, once a clear set of rules and processes are defined (for example, if you’re using AI Assistant to create SEO keyword tags on every entry), and you are asking AI to perform these tasks without any human follow-up (you never change the tags once they’ve been added), you should look at Automation Hub as a way to automation this process. Once you trust AI to perform a task - automate it! With Automation Hub, our AI Connectors (currently available: OpenAI ChatGPT and Azure OpenAI ChatGPT) can re-create a similar process but asynchronously. So, if you were using AI Assistant to do SEO enhancement, you could use Automation Hub to do the same thing. For example, when an entry reaches a specific workflow stage, run an automation that performs the AI enhancement and then push it into another stage for possible review. It’s a great way that the two products can work together and make you more efficient. Automation Hub + Marketplace The Contentstack Marketplace is a one-stop destination for enterprises to maximize the efficiency of their marketing technologies and solutions. It offers a range of apps, ready-made extensions, and one-click third-party integrations that can enhance your content management process. Notably, the Marketplace lists and provides installation access to: Automation Hub Connectors You can use These third-party applications with Automation Hub to automate certain tasks. For example, the Smartling Connector helps streamline the translation process by allowing for automatic localization of entries in any selected locale whenever a new entry is created. Automation Hub Recipes These are pre-packaged automation with pre-built action and trigger steps that users can easily install and configure as needed in their stack. An example of an available recipe simplifying data management leverages the AWS S3 action connector, which can automatically backup entries to your AWS S3 account whenever a new entry is created in Contentstack. These tools offer solutions to various use cases, but one connector pairs particularly well, and teams are using it to automate their front-end deployment and hosting. Automation Hub + Launch Contentstack Launch is a product that allows seamless automated deployment and hosting of Jamstack projects. It fills the gap in the content lifecycle where the presentation layer needs to be hosted and made available to consume on the web. You can automate the deployment process with the Launch Connector for Automation Hub. Here's how: Install the Launch Connector from the Contentstack Marketplace. Set up a trigger in Automation Hub based on a specific event, such as a content update. Configure the Launch Connector to deploy your project whenever the trigger event occurs. This process automates deployment and ensures your content is always up-to-date and available to your audience. Conclusion The combination of Automation Hub with other Contentstack products provides flexible, powerful, and innovative solutions for content management. Whether using the AI Assistant to generate brand voice prompts, leveraging the Marketplace to streamline your content management process, or automating deployment with Launch, Automation Hub makes it all possible. Ready to explore further? Dive into our Automation Hub documentation and discover how you can unlock the full potential of your digital experience stack with Contentstack's Automation Hub.

Jun 13, 2023 | 5 min. read

6 Automation Hub use cases for the new ChatGPT Connector

In the digital age, AI has become a transformative force, with OpenAI's ChatGPT leading the charge. This cutting-edge language model generates human-like text, enabling more personalized and engaging interactions. Recognizing the potential this offers to content and digital experience teams, we've recently introduced the ChatGPT Connector for Automation Hub. Automation Hub, part of Contentstack's Composable DXP ecosystem, is a visual, low/no-code workflow management solution designed to simplify integration complexities and automate routine tasks. Connectors in Automation Hub, like the newly added ChatGPT connector, are third-party applications that enhance the capabilities of Automation Hub, enabling users to automate specific tasks with ease. These connectors allow Automation Hub to interact with various tools and services, extending its functionality and making it a truly composable platform.In this post, we will explore specific use cases for both developers and business users alike, demonstrating the transformative power of AI through use of the ChatGPT Connector in Automation Hub. If you’re interested in learning more, each use case includes a link to a step-by-step guide so that you feel equipped to implement these types of solutions on your own. For developers As a developer, you're constantly juggling multiple tasks, from managing middleware to handling website change requests and dealing with integration complexities. Automation Hub's ChatGPT connector is here to lighten your load. With the ChatGPT connector, you can automate complex tasks like content generation, data analysis, and language translation. This not only frees up your time to focus on high-priority tasks but also reduces tech debt and accelerates workflows. The result? Faster delivery times, increased productivity, and a more streamlined tech stack. Use cases Streamline business analysis Suppose you have a large volume of log data that needs to be analyzed daily. With the ChatGPT connector, you can set up an Automation that reads the log data, uses ChatGPT to analyze and summarize the data, and then sends a concise report directly to your email or Slack. This automation can be scheduled to run daily, providing you with valuable insights without manual intervention. Ready to give it a shot? Here are the general steps to follow after setting up a new automation: Configure Trigger: Begin by setting up a trigger for your automation. Choose the Scheduler Connector and set it to run once per month. If you want to receive report notifications more frequently, adjust the scheduler time frame accordingly. Create HTTP Request: Next, set up an HTTP Request Connector to pull the publish queue for the site for the last 30 days. Use the API call `https://api.contentstack.io/v3/publish-queue`and enter basic authentication (api_key and authorization) in the header parameters. If you want to change the publish time frame, you can add query parameters to the API call. For more details, refer to the publish queue information. Add ChatGPT Connector Step: Now, create a step using the ChatGPT Connector. In this step, you'll create a prompt to ask ChatGPT to analyze your publish queue. In the prompt instructions, specify the facts or analysis you want ChatGPT to include in your report. This could be a comparison of the number of item types (entry versus asset), Content Types, content in certain categories, the percentage of content created in different languages, the frequency of content publishing, or any other insights or observations that ChatGPT may be able to provide. Notify Your Team: Finally, set up a step to notify your team. This could be using a Slack Connector, an Email Connector, or a similar tool. Include the report from ChatGPT in the notification to keep your team informed. Simplify language translation Imagine you have a blog that needs to be translated into multiple languages. With the ChatGPT Connector, you can create an Automation that takes the blog content as input, uses ChatGPT to translate the content into the desired languages, and then updates the translated content back into your CMS. This process can be triggered whenever a new blog post is published, ensuring your content is accessible to a global audience. Ready to give it a shot? Here are the general steps to follow after setting up a new automation: Configure Trigger: Begin by setting up a trigger for your automation. Choose the Scheduler Connector and set it to run once per month. If you want to receive report notifications more frequently, adjust the scheduler time frame accordingly. Create HTTP Request: Next, set up an HTTP Request Connector to pull the publish queue for the site for the last 30 days. Use the API call `https://api.contentstack.io/v3/publish-queue`and enter basic authentication (api_key and authorization) in the header parameters. If you want to change the publish time frame, you can add query parameters to the API call. For more details, refer to the publish queue information. Add ChatGPT Connector Step: Now, create a step using the ChatGPT Connector. In this step, you'll create a prompt to ask ChatGPT to analyze your publish queue. In the prompt instructions, specify the facts or analysis you want ChatGPT to include in your report. This could be a comparison of the number of item types (entry versus asset), Content Types, content in certain categories, the percentage of content created in different languages, the frequency of content publishing, or any other insights or observations that ChatGPT may be able to provide. Notify Your Team: Finally, set up a step to notify your team. This could be using a Slack Connector, an Email Connector, or a similar tool. Include the report from ChatGPT in the notification to keep your team informed. Conduct content audits Let's say you want to ensure all your web pages have the correct metadata for SEO. You can set up an Automation that scans your web pages, uses ChatGPT to check for missing or incorrect metadata, and then generates a report detailing any issues. This workflow can be run periodically, helping you maintain high SEO standards across your website.Ready to implement this yourself? Here are the steps after setting up a new automation: Set Up Trigger: Start by creating a trigger for when an entry enters a specific workflow stage. This ensures that the entry has all the necessary text for enhancement purposes. Add ChatGPT Connector Step: Next, add an action step using the ChatGPT Connector. In this step, create a prompt that asks ChatGPT to enhance the desired fields for SEO. Example prompts could include: “Act as a SEO expert and rewrite this headline to enhance search engine optimization.” “Act as a content writer and create a summary of this article that is approximately 100 words long.” “Act as a content marketing expert and extract a comma-separated list of relevant SEO keywords from this article.” “Act as a personalization expert and create a comma-separated list of key personas that would be interested in this article.” Update Entry: Once you've used ChatGPT to enhance various fields in your entry, create an Update entry action step. In this step, fill in the JSON object with the enhanced content from ChatGPT from the previous payloads. For business users As a business user, your goal is to improve the end-customer experience while simultaneously increasing the efficiency and speed of your marketing and content workflows. The ChatGPT connector in Automation Hub is designed to help you achieve just that. The ChatGPT connector empowers content teams to control and accelerate the delivery of their content workflows and experiences. With its advanced capabilities and user-friendly interface, non-technical users can easily make changes and improvements that streamline content processes—saving time, hassle, and money. Use cases Ensure brand voice consistency Consider a scenario where you have a large number of articles that need to align with your brand voice. You can set up an Automation that takes each article, uses ChatGPT to rewrite the content according to your brand guidelines, and then updates the revised content back into your CMS. This process can be triggered whenever a new article is added, ensuring all your content consistently reflects your brand voice. To implement on your own, follow these general steps after creating a new automation: Set Up Trigger: Start by creating a trigger for an event that will occur after a majority of the content has been created. This could be when an item transitions to a specific workflow stage. Create Brand Guidelines: Next, establish a set of brand guidelines. These could include directives such as: “Refer to Contentstack as the leading digital experience platform (DXP).” “The article tone should be professional but stylish and refreshing.” “We should be professional and user friendly.” Add ChatGPT Connector Step: Now, create an action step using the ChatGPT Connector. In this step, ask ChatGPT to "Act as a marketing expert and re-write the text to ensure consistent brand voice using the above standards." Update Entry: Finally, using an Update entry step, write the re-written content back to Contentstack. This ensures that your content aligns with your brand voice guidelines. Craft engaging product information Suppose you have a new product launching on your e-commerce platform. With the ChatGPT connector, you can create an Automation that takes the product details as input, uses ChatGPT to generate a compelling product description, and then updates the description on your e-commerce platform. This process can be triggered whenever a new product is added, helping you drive conversions with engaging product descriptions. To create your own version, follow these general steps after creating a new automation: Ensure Product Metadata: Start by ensuring that your product has some form of metadata. If you have a product image, you could use Automation Hub to run it through an image-tagging system like Google Vision. This will generate object tags. Store Object Tags: Once you have the object tags, write them back to the CMS and store them in a keyword tag field. This will provide a basis for the product description and headline. Add ChatGPT Connector Steps: Now, use a ChatGPT Connector to ask for a compelling product description. Write the prompt as if you were a content manager asking for a description. Then, try creating another ChatGPT step to ask for a product headline based on the summary. Update Entry: Finally, when you have the description and headline, write them back to the entry to update the product page. This will ensure that your product information is engaging and compelling. Personalize user experience Imagine you want to send personalized emails to different user personas. You can set up an Automation that takes user data, uses ChatGPT to generate personalized email content for each persona, and then sends the emails via your email marketing platform. This process can be triggered based on user behavior, providing a unique, engaging experience for each user.Build this on your own by following these general steps after creating a new automation: Set Up Trigger: Start by setting up a trigger based on a predictable event, such as a workflow transition. This will initiate the automation process. Define Audiences: Next, create an array of audiences that you want to address in your automation. This could be a hard-coded array created in a Transform step, or it might be a list of audiences included in a special metadata entry that can be referenced in every automation. Create Repeat Path: Now, create a Repeat Path that iterates over the array of audiences defined in the previous step. This will ensure that each audience receives personalized content. Personalize Content with ChatGPT: During the Repeat Path, send the article information and the audience for that iteration to ChatGPT. Ask ChatGPT to rewrite the content targeted toward that audience. This will ensure that each audience receives content tailored to their interests and needs. Update Entry: After the content has been personalized, write the new targeted information back into the entry using an Update entry action step. This will ensure that the personalized content is saved and can be used in your digital experience. Notify Team: Outside of the Repeat Path, you could create a closing step that notifies a Slack channel that the targeted content has been arranged. This will keep your team informed and ensure that everyone is on the same page. The integration of ChatGPT into Contentstack's Automation Hub is a testament to our commitment to innovation and agility in response to market trends. By leveraging the combined capabilities of Automation Hub and ChatGPT, businesses can streamline and automate many aspects of their content management process. This integration not only provides a flexible, powerful, and forward-thinking solution for your enterprise’s evolving content needs but also places the power of AI in the hands of both developers and business stakeholders. The result is a more efficient, productive, and customer-centric digital experience. If you're intrigued by the possibilities and ready to explore further, we invite you to dive into our ChatGPT Connector documentation. Discover how you can unlock the full potential of your digital experience stack with Contentstack's Automation Hub and ChatGPT.

Apr 18, 2023 | 2 min. read

Contentstack Marketplace: Bringing together best-in-class experiences

Contentstack Marketplace is the one-stop shop for ready-made extensions and one-click integrations with the industry's leading technology and service providers. Discover an extensive ecosystem of features, services, apps, and accelerators and combine the best technologies to achieve your desired business outcomes. The team behind Contentstack Marketplace is constantly working hard to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of applications and services. They are continually researching, creating and integrating new technologies and solutions to ensure our customers have access to the best tools and services available. Here are the latest innovations from the Marketplace team: Release Preview App View your releases in a calendar and timeline view within our new full-page extension location. Preview your content prior to a scheduled release and compare changes scheduled for your stack with upcoming releases or content you have already published. View other release details such as entries or assets that are added to a release with their titles, content types and versions within your Contentstack environment. Interstack Reference App Reference entries between stacks, similar to referring entries between content types within a stack. Easily fetch the referenced entry across your Contentstack stacks without ever leaving your current one, ensuring the availability of content across the entire enterprise and reducing manual maintenance of managing duplicate data. At Contentstack, our team is dedicated to providing the highest level of customer service by continuously creating and integrating new technologies. With Release Preview, Interstack References and more available in our Marketplace, we make it easy to explore different solutions for your projects. Whether you’re looking for a comprehensive solution or just trying something out, Contentstack ensures that your digital experiences are tailored to your needs with its vast selection of integrations and add-ons. So go ahead — start exploring! Get started today Visit Contentstack Marketplace today to learn more about how these new integrations can help you unlock the potential of your digital experiences.