System and method for managing enterprise-level interrelated site, channel, and content objects

A system for managing site content comprising:

• a content repository containing actual content items shared by a number of sites, each site of the number of sites having a domain name and hardware serving the site;
• a processor;
• and
• a content management application embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium and comprising instructions executable by the processor for:
• creating hierarchical site structures that provide a level of abstraction from the content repository, wherein the creating comprises, for each hierarchical site structure:
• defining one or more content objects;
• linking each of the one or more content objects to a corresponding actual content item contained in the content repository to thereby represent or target the actual content item;
• defining one or more channel objects for organizing the one or more content objects by channel;
• and
• defining a site object for organizing the one or more channel objects under a site;
• wherein each channel object of the one or more channel objects represents a channel and contains a plurality of references;
• wherein the plurality of references includes references to content items that are in the channel and a reference to the site to which the channel belongs;
• wherein the channel is a subdivision of the site;
• wherein each of the site, channel, and content objects has an associated set of content services;
• wherein each of the site, channel, and content objects is instantiated from a class that inherits the content services from a parent class;
• and
• wherein the plurality of references defines a relative position of the channel object in the hierarchical site structure, allowing the content items that are in the channel to be deployed by deploying the channel object from an enterprise environment to a site environment over a network.

A method comprising:

• providing a content repository containing a plurality of actual content items shared by a number of sites, each site of the number of sites having a domain name and hardware serving the site;
• and
• forming, by a content management application embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium and running on a computer having a processor, hierarchical site structures that provide a level of abstraction from the content repository, the forming comprising, for each hierarchical site structure:
• defining one or more content objects,
• linking each of the one or more content objects to a corresponding content item contained in the content repository to thereby represent or target the content item;
• defining one or more channel objects for organizing the one or more content objects by channel;
• and
• defining a site object for organizing the one or more channel objects under a site;
• wherein each channel object of the one or more channel objects represents a channel and contains a plurality of references;
• wherein the plurality of references includes references to content items that are in the channel and a reference to the site to which the channel belongs;
• wherein the channel is a subdivision of the site;
• wherein each of the site, channel, and content objects has an associated set of content services;
• wherein each of the site, channel, and content objects is instantiated from a class that inherits the content services from a parent class;
• and
• wherein the plurality of references defines a relative position of the channel object in the hierarchical site structure, allowing the content items that are in the channel to be deployed by deploying the channel object from an enterprise environment to a site environment over a network.