As your Optimizely Content Management System (SaaS) grows, finding specific content can become challenging if you're not familiar with the hierarchical structure. The traditional content tree in the Edit view and Assets panel organizes content hierarchically, which works well for smaller sites but can become unwieldy as content volume increases.

The Content Manager Solution

The CMS Content Manager view addresses these scaling issues by displaying all content (pages, assets, and media) in a flat view table structure. This alternative view provides powerful tools to help you quickly locate and manage content regardless of where it sits in the hierarchy.

Key Features

Flat Table Structure

Instead of navigating through multiple levels of folders and subfolders, Content Manager presents all content in a single, tabular view. This makes it easier to see a large amount of content at once without having to drill down through the hierarchy.

Powerful Filtering

Content Manager offers robust filtering capabilities that allow you to narrow down content based on various criteria:

• Content type (pages, blocks, media, etc.)
• Creation or modification date - Status (published, draft, expired)
• Language

Filter By Name

The search function in Content Manager searches all pages by name

Customizable Columns

You can customize which columns appear in the Content Manager view to show the information most relevant to your workflow:

• Standard properties (name, created date, modified date)
• Status indicators
• Language versions

When to Use Content Manager

Content Manager is particularly useful in these scenarios:

• When you need to find content but aren't sure where it's located in the hierarchy
• When you want to see all content of a specific type (e.g., all images, all product pages)
• When you're looking for recently modified content across the entire site
• When you need to find all unpublished or expired content

Best Practices

• Customize columns to show the most relevant information for your role
• Combine filtering and search for the most precise results
• Use Content Manager alongside the traditional tree view depending on your task

The Content Manager view complements the traditional hierarchical view, giving content editors and administrators flexible options for managing content as your site grows in complexity and scale.