Enable and configure content blocks

Throughout Cortex, content is created using content blocks. A set of commonly-needed content blocks are available out-of-the-box for CMS customers. These include Image, Video, Text, Quote, Advert, Feed, Button, Cloud Matrix (useful for customers using StreamAMG for video hosting), Collection, Gallery, Custom and Related Content. Additionally, there are blocks which correspond to a separate Cortex service, in which an item from that service can be added to content, if the customer uses that service. For example, if the customer uses the Cortex Forms product, a Form block can be enabled so that a form can easily be added to content. These include Polls, Forms, Live blog, and Promo Asset blocks.

Some of these blocks may be more relevant than others, depending on the requirements of your project, and so it may be that you choose not to support all of these on your fan-facing platforms. You can therefore disable any blocks which you will not support, to avoid issues in which the Cortex user attempts to add content in a format that is not supported by your front end website or app. To enable or disable any of the blocks in this list, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Cortex
2. Click the organisation icon in the bottom left corner
3. Select Settings
4. Go to the Content blocks tab
5. Edit the checkboxes as required
6. Click Save

In some cases, enabled blocks will not appear in all Cortex locations, depending on expected use case. For example, when creating the success message of a poll, the Live blog block is not an available option, even if enabled following the steps above, since it is unlikely to be relevant in this use case.

Configuring providers available in the Video block

When creating content using the Video block, Cortex users are asked to select a provider from a dropdown list. The available fields within the Video block then differs, depending on the selected provider, including in some cases hidden fields which are prepopulated by centralised values.

The providers in the dropdown list can be configured in the same menu referred to above, following these steps:

1. Log in to Cortex
2. Click the organisation icon in the bottom left corner
3. Select Settings
4. Go to the Content blocks tab
5. Enable the Video block
6. Alongside the video block checkbox, click Edit providers
7. Add or remove providers from the list, as required
8. If StreamAMG has been added as a provider, add the Search URL. This enables an integration in which a Cortex user can select videos from their StreamAMG library from within the Cortex platform
9. If either StreamAMG or Brightcove have been added as a provider, add values for the Account ID and Player ID fields, if required. The values added here will be included in the API response for each Video block where StreamAMG or Brightcove are set as the provider, so that the video can be rendered using the correct account and player or theme.
10. Click Save

Configuring providers available in the Image block

As with the Video block, described above, additional providers can be added to the Image block if required, by following these steps.

1. Log in to Cortex
2. Click the organisation icon in the bottom left corner
3. Select Settings
4. Go to the Content blocks tab
5. Enable the Image block
6. Alongside the image block checkbox, click Edit providers
7. Add or remove providers from the list, as required
8. If Getty has been added as a provider, add the Search URL. This enables an integration in which a Cortex user can select images from their Getty library from within the Cortex platform
9. Click Save

Configuring providers available in the Advert block

With the Advert block, provider details can be configured so that adverts from Google Ad Manager accounts can be rendered. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Cortex
2. Click the organisation icon in the bottom left corner
3. Select Settings
4. Go to the Content blocks tab
5. Enable the Advert block
6. Alongside the advert block checkbox, click Edit providers
7. Add or remove accounts from the list, as required. For example, if your website or app might render adverts from three different Google Ad Manager accounts, you will need three items in this list.
8. For each account, set a display name. This is used as an identifier within Cortex, to distinguish one account from the other.
9. For each account, set a network code. This value will be included in the content API each time an advert block is used, in which this account is selected. The network code is essential to render the advert from Google Ad Manager, alongsode the code for the individual advert. The network code is an ID corresponding to the individual Google Ad Manager account, and is available in Google Ad Manager.
10. Click Save

A note on custom content blocks

As well as the default, out-of-the-box, blocks referred to above, it is also possible to use the custom content blocks feature to build bespoke content models, and therefore power any front end component. Once created, these custom blocks can be selected by content editors by selecting Custom from the list of blocks when producing content, and then selecting the required custom block from the list.

To create a custom content block:

1. Log in to Cortex
2. In the main navigation bar, select Custom content blocks
3. Click +Add new
4. Give the custom block a name so that it can be easily identified within Cortex
5. Give the custom block a key, so that it can be easily identified by your front end platform (website or app) in the content API response
6. Add fields to your block from the available options, including input fields, select fields, nested blocks and default blocks.
7. Click Save

Enable optional CMS features

Throughout Cortex, certain assumptions are made about the content models that would be necessary to power a sport-specific website. For example, when creating an article, any rights holder might, at least sometimes, need to be able to add a sponsor of that article, so the article content model includes the option to add a sponsor.

In some cases, a feature in the Cortex out-of-the-box content models may not be relevant, depending on the requirements of your project, and so it may be that you choose not to support all of these on your fan-facing platforms. For example, many fan-facing websites and apps include details of the author of an article, but some do not, so an Author field is available but may not be relevant to your project. You can therefore disable certain features that are less commonly-supported, to avoid issues in which the Cortex user attempts to add content that is not supported by your front end website or app.

Those optional CMS features include:

• In Content, fields for read time, author, authentication, and metadata.
• In Navigation, fields for images, feeds, promo assets, and sponsors, in navigation menu items
• In Players, fields for social media, awards and accolades, retail link, and additional content blocks.

To enable or disable any of the features listed above, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Cortex
2. Click the organisation icon in the bottom left corner
3. Select Settings
4. Go to the Content Management tab
5. Edit the toggles as required
6. Click Save

Enable and configure the search for linked ID feature

Linked IDs can be added to content produced in the Cortex CMS, to tag content in a structured taxonomy referencing the source system in which the ID originates, along with the ID itself. For example, if an article were about Wembley Stadium, the source system might be OPTA_FOOTBALL_VENUE and the ID might be 5 (5 corresponds to Wembley Stadium in Opta’s database of football venues). Articles with this ID might then be shown in a Wembley-specific news carousel.

Linked IDs can be added manually, if known, but the search for linked ID feature enables users to search for the correct linked ID in that source system. For example, a user might search for “Wembley” and then easily add the correct ID as per Opta’s database.

To enable the search for linked ID feature:

1. Log in to Cortex
2. Click the organisation icon in the bottom left corner
3. Select Settings
4. Go to the General tab
5. Click the toggle next to Linked ID to enable the feature
6. Select the types of sporting entity users should be able to search for from Types, e.g. Venue
7. Select the providers and sports against which searches should be run e.g. OPTA and FOOTBALL
8. Click Save

Please ensure you have any necessary licenses to use the selected provider's IDs.

Enable and configure the deeplinks feature

The deeplinks feature may be useful where you are building an Android or iOS app. As opposed to an https:// web link, which would normally direct a fan to a web page viewed within a browser, a deeplink can be used to direct fans to a specific app screen.

A deeplink field, with a deeplink builder, can be added to image blocks, button blocks and to push notifications, so that a Cortex user can insert a link to an app screen, using a link format supported by your front end Android or iOS apps.

Deeplinks in the Cortex platform are in the format deeplink-{identifier}://{area}/{id}. Below, references to {identifier}, {area}, and {id} are references to this format.

Note that these steps should be done in collaboration with the app developers on the project, as the deeplinks must be in a format understood and expected by your app(s).

To enable the deeplinks feature:

1. Log in to Cortex
2. Click the organisation icon in the bottom left corner
3. Select Settings
4. Go to the General tab
5. Click the toggle next to Deeplinks to enable the feature
6. Use the Identifier field to add a value for {identifier}. You might have your own conventions, but it would typically be a short name representing the organisation. For example if the organisation was Cortex F.C., the identifier might be cfc, so that deeplinks would be in the format deeplink-cfc://{area}/{id}.
7. For each area you want to support (for example in deeplink-cfc://news/, news is the area):
   1. Define the display name. This is what the user will see in the deeplink helper in Cortex, so you might use something like News to represent a news screen
   2. Define the screen name. This is what will be used as the area in the deeplink itself, so you might use something like news for a news screen. It’s important that this corresponds with what the app will expect in the deeplink as this is the value that the app would use to direct fans to the correct screen.
   3. Decide whether it has items. This controls whether the Cortex user can progress to a second menu in which they can add the {id} to the end of the deeplink. For example, if I do not add an item, my deeplink might just be deeplink-cfc://news/, but if I’m able to choose a specific news article, my deeplink would be something like this: deeplink-cfc://news/016c419da-261a-4887-b11d-1727a5d07852. Select CONTENT if you want Cortex users to generate an {id} value by selecting an article or page; select MATCH if you want Cortex users to generate an {id} value by selecting a match or fixture; and select FREE TEXT for Cortex users to manually type in the value for {id}
8. Click Save

Enable and configure the preview URL

A Preview button can be added to articles and pages in the Content section of Cortex. Users can click this button to generate a preview of their content before it is published. The preview must be hosted on the customer's website (albeit on a secret page inaccessible to fans), and accordingly some front end work is required to support this feature. More detail on how to implement this is here: https://developer.cortextech.io/docs/enabling-previews-of-articles-and-pages.

Provided that this feature is, or will be, supported by your front end platform, these are the steps to enable the feature within Cortex:

1. Log in to Cortex
2. Click the organisation icon in the bottom left corner
3. Select Settings
4. Go to the Content Management tab
5. Enter the URL on which previews would be rendered in the field Preview URL
6. Click Save

If the field is left blank, no Preview button will be shown in Content. If there is any value in that field, the Preview button will be shown, with a link to a URL in the format {preview URL}?articleId={article ID}&secret={secret}.

Add suggested tags

Articles and pages created in the Content section of Cortex, can be assigned categories or tags in order to classify that content. Categories are normally recommended as they come from a centrally managed list, but there are some use cases in which free text tags are preferable.

When the user types in the Tags field, suggested tags, if set up, can appear to help the user add the correct tag. This may be especially useful where the same tag is commonly used.

To add to the list of suggested tags, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Cortex
2. Click the organisation icon in the bottom left corner
3. Select Settings
4. Go to the Content Management tab
5. Enter the tag you want to appear as a suggested tag in the field Suggested tags and press Enter.
6. Click Save

Add locales or languages

Throughout Cortex, content can be defined as being in a particular language or locale, so that the right content can be shown to the right fans on multilingual websites and apps.

The language or locale is selected by the Cortex user when producing their content, using a dropdown menu. The values that appear in this dropdown menu are managed in a centralised list.

To add to the list of locales or languages shown in relevant dropdown menus, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Cortex
2. Click the organisation icon in the bottom left corner
3. Select Settings
4. Go to the *Locales *tab
5. Use the Locales field to select the locales or languages you want to appear in relevant dropdown menus
6. Select a Default locale
7. Click Save