CSMonitor.com is the most visited eZ Publish site in North America.
Mugo has been working with The Christian Science Monitor since April 2010. CSMonitor.com is the hub for the online, Kindle, and print editions, as well as for multiple syndication channels. It is the most visited eZ Publish site in North America.
Development work is grouped into 2-week release cycles in order to consistently drive new features. At Mugo Web, we use our experience with eZ Publish and web publishing in general to address a wide range of issues, such as caching, clustering, syndication, ad servers, multimedia content, searching, and more. From inserting social media buttons to tuning low-level cache performance with eZ's Distributing File System clustering, we are trusted to look at all things eZ Publish. We also provide support in multiple timezones.
"The team members we work with at Mugo have demonstrated a high caliber of competency in the work they do, and it instills great confidence in us to know that we have such quality professionals in our corner. Their consistent delivery has helped us develop a fluid system for enacting change and improvements on our website. We certainly look forward to continuing this relationship!"
- Wendy Prugh, Program Manager, The Christian Science Monitor
Over the past year, Mugo has helped CSMonitor.com keep readers on the site by increasing the average number of pageviews per visit by 30%, and achieve a 50% increase in total number of pageviews per month to 36 million. We've helped The Christian Science Monitor have its best fiscal year since 1963.
CSMonitor.com is a busy news website, with dozens of editors posting breaking news and commentary throughout the day.
The homepage and topic landing pages are managed using dynamic layout blocks with the frontpage management tool eZ Flow, which empowers editors to hand-pick featured stories as well as configure blocks that automatically update with new content.
Key article categories include World, USA, Commentary, Business, Environment, Innovation, Science, Culture, and Books. In addition to the more traditional article content type, there are blog posts, list articles, photo galleries, videos, and interactive quizzes.
Microsites feature different designs and sponsorship.
There is significant integration with social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Disqus, and AddThis. For example, users can share personalized quiz results with their friends.
CSMonitor.com has a sophisticated publishing workflow system, which includes content preview, an approval workflow, and scheduled publishing. Editors can create related content links and tag content in various ways. In addition, related content can be suggested and automatically populated using eZ Find (for content from within the site) and using Inform's automated content categorization and tagging (for content internal and external to the site).
Editorial interface enhancements include:
We've implemented a flexible framework for editors to specify common SEO fields as well as extended meta tags for specific search needs, Open Graph, and more.
CSMonitor.com's content model and structure achieves both user-friendly interfaces and efficient page generation. Mugo Web has helped the Christian Science Monitor to dynamically grow and shape its content model, empowering staff and engaging readers. We've implemented new content displays, such as list articles; helped launch new sections, such as their Monitor Breakfast area; and created and improved dynamic layout blocks using eZ Flow.
Automated data import brings in content from an in-house media publishing platform. Data export is achieved in many ways: via an XML format to be consumed by InDesign for print layouts; via RSS for end users; and for content syndication with publishing partners (Yahoo, Amazon, and more) using formats such as nitf, nfb, lmt, newsml, and more.
Content is re-used for the mobile site, so that editors do not have to manage separate content trees for different channels. The mobile site features automated mobile device detection and supports all of the main features and content types of the main site.
CSMonitor.com has an archive installation that hosts articles dating back to 1980.
Mugo is consistently optimizing the website's performance.
CSMonitor.com runs an eZ Distributed File System (eZ DFS) cluster setup, with front-end web servers sharing a file system and a master-slave database architecture. There is a web server dedicated to administrative and editorial interfaces.
We've extended eZ Publish's cache handling functionality to achieve optimal cache clearing rules. We've also optimized the caching settings that get integrated with the Akamai CDN (Content Delivery Network) to balance server efficiency (caching what you can as long as possible) and timeliness of content. Interactive content types such as quizzes have been configured to work in a static cache environment.
We use the Solr-based eZ Find extension to achieve complex content fetches and to generate topic-based pages and automated content lists.
Mugo has improved image handling to reduce dependence on a shared file system. We've added maintenance scripts to organize content and to identify and remove orphaned and obsolete content (such as images and old content versions). We proactively patch eZ Publish issues and submit the code back to the main kernel.
We've implemented advanced performance monitoring for key services such as the databases, the shared file system, and the web servers. We've troubleshooted and protected the site against attacks from greedy news aggregators gone bad and other unexpected sources, to ensure that it runs as smooth as possible.
We use Assembla for ticketing, milestones, releases, wikis, version control, and more. We have individual development environments and a staging environment separate from the production environment.
Mugo Web enjoys the collaborative working atmosphere with The Christian Science Monitor. We work to set realistic expectations and goals and work to satisfy many stakeholders, interests, and business needs. The website presents ongoing new technology challenges, and we are counted upon to help with the continued success of the news organization.
Google Maps is an almost ubiquitous tool and can be incredibly useful to integrate into your site. There’s a lot of versatility in its uses, but depending on how much you’re asking it to do, the results might not be optimal. When you have a huge dataset to display on Google Maps, the performance tends to slow down. When that data is spread across a large geographic area, the issue can be compounded. As you zoom out and more markers try to load, your map can slow to a crawl. What was a useful tool now becomes a point of frustration for visitors to your site. Let’s take a look at the technique that can be used to improve the performance of maps with large datasets.
One of the major selling points for Google Analytics 4, when it was released in late 2020, was the inclusion of predictive analytics metrics, a Big Data feature that until then had largely been the domain of enterprise analytics packages.
Now that Google has announced that GA4 will replace Universal Analytics for all users by July 1, 2023, it’s worth a second look at how GA4’s predictive analytics can impact your business.
Doctor search and bookings site, FindaTopDoc.com, offers a medical library content along with user generated reviews of specialists both online and via on-location kiosks.
The Mugo Web team recently worked with one of our long-time clients, FindaTopDoc.com, to execute a seamless migration from its existing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to a new platform.
This project was critical since FindaTopDoc relies on extensive use of CRM integrations to power its physician directory website. Applications range from updating doctors’ searchable listings to managing user-generated content, a pillar of the FindaTopDoc publishing strategy.
Events are the buzziest change between Universal Analytics (UA) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4). There’s a good reason for that — they mark a very substantial shift in how property owners track data on their sites. This is a daunting prospect and an opportunity. As a property owner, you will need to reevaluate how you use your analytics and how you can make the new system work for you. As you make the switch to GA4 before UA’s End Of Service date (July 1, 2023), you might be focusing on just recreating a familiar pattern and making your GA4 property look the same as your old UA dashboard; the better option is to clarify exactly what you need from your site’s analytics and leverage GA4’s superior flexibility to accomplish your goals.
We’ve discussed eep (Ease eZ Publish) several times over the years. It’s a powerful tool we at Mugo Web have used for innovative solutions. For the uninitiated, eep is a collection of scripts to support developers working with eZ Publish. Now that eZ Publish is a legacy product, we needed a new option for eZ Platform and Ibexa DXP. Introducing eep-bundle, a collection of Symfony commands specifically selected to work with the new system! We’ll dive in and look at some of the more useful functions eep-bundle provides, such as commands to work with cache, content, content field and type, location, section, and user data.
If you have a Google Analytics property, you’ve probably heard about the upcoming switch to GA4. You might have seen the banners across the top of the page when you log into UA. “Universal Analytics will no longer process new data in standard properties beginning July 1, 2023”, a polite yet vaguely threatening notification, easily ignored as a problem for next year. If you are proactive, you might have already started the switch to the new platform, having heard the recommendation to run both concurrently until the switch. And if you are like many, that might be as far as you’ve gotten.
Specialty presses have specific requirements that aren’t met by run-of-the-mill websites or standard e-commerce solutions. Their readers are among the most demanding consumers you’ll find online, and they want precise details about your publications, trustworthy reviews, and recommendations from a community of like-minded readers.
A retail shopping cart e-commerce system isn’t up to the standard these customers expect.
This is part of the reason why Mugo built ReaderBound, an all-in-one, a feature-rich website platform for publishers. The specific demands of this industry require an integrated, purpose-built commerce experience.
Mugo Web
Unit 205, 332 Columbia Street
New Westminster, BC
V3L 1A6, Canada
Phone: 604-637-6396
E-mail: hi@mugo.ca
