This article provides brief explanations of key terms and concepts used in Sitecore, UChicago's Web Content Management System.

Content Editor

An editing tool where your content is organized as items in a tree structure.

Content Tree

On the left side of the content editor, content is organized as items in a tree structure. Items can be expanded by clicking the small arrow to reveal subitems. This structure is the content tree. 

Component

A component is a formatted content bucket you can place on a page to display a piece of content in that chosen format.

Data Folder

Each page that contains components has a data folder. The data folder houses the data sources for components you add to your page.

Data Source

A data source item is the content that populates components. Most components must be connected to a data source in order to display content. Data sources live within a page's data folder.

Experience Editor

An editing tool designed to allow content editors to edit content in a visual manner on the page.

Folder

An organizational element of the Content Tree that has no fields and acts as a container for other items.

Item

A piece of content listed in the content tree made up of fields that contain information. This is a catch-all term that could refer to a page, a media file, a component, etc.

Lock

Locking an item for editing prevents multiple users from editing a single item simultaneously.

Media Item

An item that contains a media resource such as an image, PDF, Word document, PowerPoint, etc.

Media Library

Where Media Items are stored and managed in Sitecore.

Page

A page refers to a displayable page on a website. It is referenced in the Content Tree by its "Page Title". Each page consists of a pre-built layout and components that are added by content editors

Publish

Publishing is the act of making content available on the live website. When you edit or create new items in Sitecore, each individual item (including components) must be published before they appear on your website.

Renderings

Component renderings are image examples of components that appear when adding new components in the Experience Editor to give users a visual example of each component type.

Ribbon

The top navigation in both the Content and Experience editors that houses the tools you will need to edit and publish your content.

Role

Roles are assigned to authors as well as site visitors, and are defined to control access to content for editing (authors) and viewing (site visitors).

Sitecore dashboard

When you log into authoring.uchicago.edu, the dashboard is your starting point for Sitecore. What you can see in the dashboard depends on the role that the administrator has assigned to you. All content editors will be able to see the Content Editor and the Media Library from the dashboard.

User

In the context of this Sitecore documentation, "user" will always refer to a person accessing the Sitecore content management client.

Version

A new version is created every time an item is locked and edited by a user. Items can contain any number of versions, and past versions of an item can be accessed through the versions tab of the ribbon.

Wordmark

A wordmark is a text-based logo.

Workflow

An approval process for publishing content that includes defined states and actions to control the process that an item must move through before becoming publishable. The workflow is unique to user roles.

Workflow state

Represents a step in the workflow process.

Write Access

Controls whether a user can create, modify, or delete content in a page or component. Some users may have read access to a page or item but be denied write access. Only a user with write access can make edits to the page or item.