Need a sample architecture and design documents for Tridion implementation

Question

All - We are currently working on building websites using Tridion and need to come up with an architecture document depicting logical and physical architectures as well as a design document for individual schema and templates that would be developed. Can someone share a sample one or a template that can be used for the same. I am mainly looking for logical architecture diagram samples more than anything else.

Thanks, Aravind

Answer 1

I hope this doesn't sound overly harsh, but it sounds like you could benefit from hiring a consultant for a few days to help you along. There are so many ways you can implement Tridion, that any boilerplate documentation that might get provided here may have little or no value for your implementation.

If you really can't justify hiring a consultant (either from SDL or independently), I suggest you at least outline what you are thinking of. Start with some of these points:

• You presentation side architecture (MVC, Static HTML Scripted PAges, Service Model etc)
• Your presentation side technology (PHP, .NET, Java etc.)
• Your integration requirements for the CM and CD side
• Your requirements for failover, disaster recover, redundancy etc.
• Your expected website loads etc.
• Your typical software development lifecycle
• Your business requirements for how often content and designs are change
• Your budget for hardware
• Your budget for implementation
• Any details on the Tridion software you have purchased
• the list goes on and on....

Best of luck, and please consider hiring someone for at least a few days to talk you through some of this.

Answer 2

In addition to what Chris has mentioned...please be careful if you are planning to use any of the architectural diagrams available on Live Content website and before that reads terms & conditions available on the site for re-using of any of the image or content.

To start with, you may want to go through THIS blog post of mine if it helps; but to be more effective I am inline with what Chris has suggested.

Answer 3

SDL Education offers a Functional Design class that how to document schemas and templates, but also the prerequisite page types and content types.

Schemas and templates are not enough for a "CMS Design," you'll want to include:

• Who and Where: Organization including folders, structure groups, and the especially the BluePrint model.
• What: Content Model or the relationship between page types, content types, and to an extent, fields. These are typically based on wireframes and/or mock-ups but I sometimes see them missing from organizations that have done implementations without guidance.
• How: The Tridion-specific details including, but not limited to, schemas and templates.

No special format required for these, though you should call out things like global use and naming conventions. See a typical schema definition in table format on the PowerTools wiki, though I've seen indented formats work as well.

An actual document "template" would be part of a professional services engagement with SDL, partner, or independent consultant.

Architectural diagrams aren't much different than how you'd document Web and Application servers. It's good you're considering both types:

• Logical diagrams highlight the tiers and relationships between them. You might have boxes (or Visio server diagrams) for, but not limited to, "Content Management," "Publishing," and "Delivery," for example. Arrows show the relationships. Refer to some of Julian Wraith's whiteboarding recordings for the basics (relationships are more important than the diagram's look-and-feel). :-)
• A physical diagrams detail the specifics server quantities and what may be physical versus virtual.

You'll probably want to capture differences between DTAP environments as well. Your baseline documentation will be important for future changes, upgrade scans/audits, and troubleshooting.

Most importantly, a proper diagram can clarify confusion between Content Management and Content Delivery, which seems to be the biggest hurdle I've seen for those new to Tridion (or maybe this type of content management in general).