4.8.0 Product Guide

Here’s an overview of each new, key feature and general improvements included in version 4.8.

Improves content quality and encourages AI use in Brightspot by adding advanced features to track and manage AI usage. Gives users clear guidelines and visibility into how generative AI is used in the CMS to maintain content integrity.

Features

• Create site level and role level permissions for access to generative AI.
• Create content level and field level flags for containing AI content.
• Create a global filter and fields in Brightspot search that displays which content contains AI generated content and the fields within that content that contain AI generated content.
• Improve analytics dashboard widgets to be able to filter results displayed based on if they have AI generated content.
• Create new AI usage widget to display AI usage statistics.
• Display inline content flagging within the RTE and other areas where content changes are tracked.

Documentation: Configuring AI permissions for a role

Ask questions, gather insights, generate summaries, and more, within Brightspot CMS. Using a site’s own content and data, users can efficiently find the information they need to create great content faster.

Features

• CMS users will be able to ask questions about their content with a chat assistant in the Search experience.
• The assistant will provide a relevant answer to the user's question.
• The assistant will provide top relevant footnotes along with their answer.
• Users will be able to Quick View the content in the footnote results for more details.
• Users will be able to configure settings to affect the behavior of the model.
• Users will have the ability to restrict the types of content the model can reference to generate answers.

Documentation: Brightspot's generative AI integrations

• Amazon Bedrock
• Google Vertex

Incorporate GenAI into content workflows using leading industry models like Claude and Gemini. This integration can speed up content creation, reveal insights about site content, and allows users to adjust the site’s model settings. All of this is achieved without compromising on data privacy and security, thanks to the reliability of AWS or GCP.

Features

• Users will have the ability to configure relevant settings including their region, foundation model of choice, model version, temperature, max tokens,  etc.
• This integration will support Anthropic’s Claude model and Amazon’s Titan model and Meta's Llama model.
• When configured and enabled, CMS users will be able to use generative AI features on the asset level powered by the configured foundation model.
• Users will also have the ability to configure usage of this model for the Search AI experience.

Documentation: Creating a new Ask AI client

This feature enables CMS users to extract valuable insights and answers from their content and data by asking questions to generative AI models.

• Users will have the ability to configure relevant settings including their foundation model of choice, temperature settings, etc.,
• This integration will support the following:
  
  • Gemini

• When configured and enabled, CMS users will be able to use generative AI features on the asset level powered by the configured foundation model
• The settings for this feature will be located under the AI Cluster, under Google Vertex AI.

Documentation: Creating a new Ask AI client

Users can take actions such as pushing content through workflows and approving tasks right from your notifications. This helps users stay focused, complete tasks more quickly, and streamline the content creation and publishing process.

Features

• Take actions directly from notifications received within the delivery option application
• Preview the content referenced in notifications.
• Add or reply to comments from notifications.
• Watch or unwatch the content referenced in notifications.
• Transition the referenced content through its workflow from notifications.

Documentation: Actionable notifications

The redesigned content edit page will include a new header, flexible edit and preview pane widths, a condensed rich-text toolbar, and a collapsable right-rail that better utilizes screen real estate and allows users to control what they see.

• The redesigned content edit page provides users with a clean, modern experience.
• The redesigned content edit page header & title area will optimize available space to present information and functionality to users.
• Content edit and preview pane widths can be adjusted to accommodate different user preferences and needs.
• A redesigned rich-text toolbar displays tools responsively in a single line, collapsing additional tools into an overflow menu dependent on the screen size and the edit pane width.
• Edit page widgets will be accessible from a new side toolbar that allows users to expand and collapse widgets as needed while maximizing screen real estate when they are not in use.
• Commenting experiences in the rich-text editor, workflows, and conversations will be presented more cohesively by including them all within the conversations widget. 
• In addition, users can add contextual, field-level comments to provide feedback and direction.

Documentation: Anatomy of a content edit page

The GraphQL plugin has been completely redeveloped to improve the performance and reliability of developing and maintaining large-scale, highly dynamic schemas. The GraphQL Content API (GCA) will benefit any customers who leverage Brightspot for Headless or Hybrid applications and currently use our CDA or CMA APIs.

Features

• A type-safe, performant, and instrumented framework for building dynamic GraphQL schemas
• Code Generator for Java
• GCA is the first implementation
• Schema load performance (50x speed up compared to v1)
• Merges the functionality of the CMA and the CDA into a single unified API
• Flexible and customizable to support a vast array of delivery use cases
• Backward incompatible but natural upgrade path
• Query for any data type with FULL Dari Query API Support
• Content Management - History, Revisions, Derivations, Overlays, Preview, Draft, Save, Workflow, Publish, Revision, Archive, Restore, Delete
• View Rendering - Harness the full power of the View System
• Custom Methods - Execute arbitrary Java methods to reuse any platform or project business logic

Documentation: GraphQL API

The My Activity Widget will allow users to more easily find the content they care about directly from their Dashboard. The widget will allow users to find content they have published, updated, and viewed, as well as content they are watching.

Features

• Users will be able to add one or more My Activity widgets to a Dashboard and override the default widget name “My Activity”.
• The My Activity widget will display content relevant to the Tool User viewing the Dashboard and is not specific to the Tool User who created or updated the Dashboard.
• The My Activity widget will display content the current Tool User created, published, updated, viewed, and is watching.
• The My Activity widget will display content in the same format/layout as the Recent Activity widget.
• The My Activity widget will support Quick View for content using the ‘Info’ icon in the same way as the Recent Activity widget.
• Users will be able to filter the My Activity widget by Activity Types (updated, published, viewed, etc.), Content Types, and Statuses.
• The My Activity widget will always retain the user’s last Filter selections.

Documentation: Configuring the My Activity widget

The goal of the Site Health Framework is to proactively notify Brightspot users about conditions that may affect the overall health of their sites. There are factors controllable within the CMS that -- if teams were proactively made aware of them -- can be rectified before resulting in an issue worsening, causing a site outage, or a call being made to on-call services. The Site Health Framework also includes a tie into the notifications system to deliver Alerts.

Features

• An admin user can configure conditions that trigger the Site Health Framework within Sites & Settings, at both a Global and a Site level. 
  
  • Alerts configured at Global should cascade to all Sites; Alerts should be configurable at a Site level. 
• To configure a condition, a developer must create the condition itself. 
  
  • Admin users can enable that condition and associate it with a Severity (Error, Warning, Suggestion).
• A new Site Health Dashboard widget displays and retains a history of all Site Health Alerts
• Users can receive Site Health notifications, including:
  
  • Configuring automatic Site Health Notifications within Global
  • Configuring site Health Notifications within a Role
  • Configuring site Health Notifications within a Profile
• Site Health permissions provide the ability to limit a users view of Site Health Alerts by severity and category

Documentation: Site health

The User Access widget will allow users to create draft content in the CMS and limit visibility and access to these drafts with no additional users or a small group of users.

Features

• The new User Access widget will give users the ability to specify if they want a specific asset they create in the CMS to be visible and editable by other users.
• The new User Access widget will be available on the content edit page in the same area where the Sites Access widget appears.
• The new User Access widget will follow a similar UI paradigm as the Site Acess widget allowing users to share content with All Users, Some Users, or Creator Only (no other users).
• By default All Users will be selected, making content visible and editable to all other users in the CMS with a role that provides access to the site, content type, and workflow status.
• If Some Users is selected, users will be presented with an additional dropdown where they can specify one or more users who will also be able to view and edit the specific asset.
• If Creator Only is selected only the user who created the specific asset will be able to find and access the asset within the CMS.
• When Some Users or Creator Only is selected a banner will be displayed at the top of the content edit page to remind users the specific asset they are working on is not visible to all users. For example:
  
  • If Some Users is selected “This content is currently only visible to some users. To make this content visible to all users update User Access.”
  • If Creator Only is selected “This content is currently only visible to you. To make this content visible to all users update User Access.”
  • Users will be provided with the option to enable or disable the User Access widget across all sites or for individual sites within the Sites & Settings area.

Documentation: Enabling the Users widget

The improvements added to the Version History comparison model will allow users to access versions of their content at a embedded enhancement modular level.

Features

• Rich Text Editor / Embedded Enhancements: The new comparison UI will be accessible for both draft and published content that includes a rich text editor as part of the data model. This ensures that users can review changes regardless of the content's current state.
• Enhancement Bars: The enhancements are part of the small, medium, and large rich text toolbars. This means that users can access the comparison features directly from the toolbar while editing rich text content.
• Information Icon:: When users select a previous draft or revision and compare it to the current live version, there will be an information icon on the enhancement bar of the rich text editor. This icon serves as a visual indicator to initiate the comparison process.
• Highlighting Changes: Within the comparison, all deleted changes will be discreetly highlighted in red, making it easy for users to identify content that has been removed. Similarly, all added changes will be discreetly highlighted in green, allowing users to quickly spot new content that has been introduced.

Documentation: Version History widget

Users can see Adobe Analytics stats in Brightspot utilizing Brightspot’s site and page analytics widgets. This gives users a consistent experience between Adobe Analytics and Brightspot and reduces the need for users to switch between systems.

Features

• Adobe Analytics can be selected as an analytics supplier.
• When selected, Brightspot page analytics widget are populated using Adobe Analytics statistics.
• When selected, Brightspot site analytics widgets are populated using Adobe Analytics statistics.

Documentation: Adobe Analytics

The eCommerce Vertical Solution includes an integration with Shopify (w/data models compatible with other leading storefront providers like BigCommerce), as well as eCommerce-specific Content Types (Products, Product Lists, Product Promos, Product Search Modules etc.), Promo Styles, Hotspot support, GA4-powered product analytics, and the ability to syndicate content (Headers, Footers, more) to create a seamless customer experiences between a Brightspot-published site and a Shopify-powered storefront.

Features

• Seamless import of eCommerce Products from 3rd Party Storefront platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.) with automated background updates and Federated Search w/support for Variants, Collections, and Brightspot Overrides
• Data Models, Content Types, and FE Presentation Layer and Designs for eCommerce Products (Promos, Lists, RTE Enhancements, Search Modules/Pages, Catalogs, Collections)
• Hotspots (w/Product-specific overlay UX), Recently Viewed, “Flags” (“On Sale”, “Top Selling”) and numerous smaller pieces of eCommerce-specific functionality
• Analytics (GA4) and data-driven publishing (Dynamic List sorts for Top Selling, Most Profitable, etc.)
• Syndicated Content (Header, Footer, more) between Brightspot Site and eCommerce Storefront (Shopify, etc.)

Documentation: Shopify

Many teams use multiple applications for content planning including spreadsheets, documents, calendars, task management apps, and the CMS. To help bring more of these tools together, Brightspot has provided two-way integrations with Google Calendar.

Features

• Google Calendars and Events can be imported and displayed within Brightspot CMS.
• Content calendar dates (Scheduled Publish Dates, Assignment Due Dates, and Custom Project Dates) can be shared with Google Calendar via subscription.
• Calendar events can be automatically or manually synced between Google Calendar and Brightspot.

Documentation: Google Calendar

IPAAS (Integration Provider as a Service) are cloud based platforms which act as middleware for easily building integrations between different applications. There are many IPAAS Providers with various strategies. Integrating with an IPAAS provider enables customers to connect with thousands of third-party applications through a no or low-code solution.

Features

Brightspot 4.8 includes an admin area to create, search and manage the three different components of a Zapier workflow (referred to as a zap):

• Trigger—Webhooks and polling.
• Search—Finds more data.
• Action—Takes an action, like saving an asset in Brightspot.

Documentation: Zapier