The back-office is the heart of any content management system and Umbraco is no different. With an exceptionally user-friendly design, Umbraco’s back-office is easy to navigate, intuitive to use, and easily adaptable to suit any and all business needs.
Through this deep dive into the back-office, we'll highlight, from an editor’s point of view, the advantages of Umbraco as a CMS, showing how it simplifies content management, enhances flexibility, and stands out from perhaps better-known alternatives.
This article will not go through how to set up an Umbraco project, this can be found here: https://docs.umbraco.com/umbraco-cms/fundamentals/setup
Once we have a project set up and running; we can access the back-office by adding “/umbraco” to our website’s URL. This will bring up the login screen where we can enter our details created when we set-up the project and….
Voila! We’ve entered the heart of our project, the back-office. Let’s take a second to look around the different sections.
Take some time to familiarise your self with these basic areas:
Firstly, let’s take a look at the hierarchical structure of content creation in Umbraco.
Now, let’s use an example to help us better understand what this all means.
Filling a document type with several properties allows us to build out the pages of our website, simplifying content creation by making it easy to create, edit, organise, and publish in just a few clicks.
“But how do we do all of those things?” I hear you ask, don’t worry, we’ll show you.
1. Inside our Home document type within the Settings section, we click “Add Property”
2. This will open our property settings area, here we give the property a name of “Title” and use the “Select editor” to choose a Textstring data type and then submit followed by save in the bottom right.
3. Next, back in our Content section, we can see that our Home content node now has a Title property where we can add content and press “Save and publish” to see this content appear on our webpage.
4. When we have multiple properties in our document type, we can order them by clicking on “Reorder” in the top right and then dragging each property to our desired position.
Now that we’ve touched on the Content and Settings sections, let’s take a look into the Media section. This is where we store our media that is referenced throughout our site, from images and videos to audio clips and PDF’s – we can upload to the Media section directly:
or in the Content section itself if one of our properties has a media picker data type:
We can categorise our media items into folders for ultimate organisation and if we click on the “info” tab we can see when a media item was created, last edited, where in the site the item is referenced, and a link to the original image itself.
In summary, the Media section in Umbraco serves as a central hub for managing all visual and document-based assets within a site. Whether organising files into structured folders or tracking the history and usage of media items, this section ensures efficiency and accessibility. With its intuitive tools and integration options, the Media section not only streamlines content
management but also enhances the user experience by keeping all assets easily searchable and well-maintained.
One of Umbraco’s biggest advantages is in its extendibility. Accessed via the Packages section, Umbraco packages are official and community made extensions for the Umbraco content management system.
Let’s take a look at some popular packages which focus on enhancing the editor experience:
Umbraco Forms
An official Umbraco package that makes form creation simple whilst providing vital data straight to the back-office. This package allows editors to select from a range of input types, create validation rules, conditions, and manage workflows from an accessible and intuitive interface.
Multilanguage Checkbox
For users managing sites that display in multiple languages, this independent package provides a data type that gives editors a textbox for each configured language in Umbraco. This simple but effective idea makes it easier to add multilanguage text content on media items, so rather than having to switch language version in the back-office multiple times for the same piece of text, it can be changed for each individual language all in one place.
Umbraco Commerce
Another package built and supported by Umbraco HQ, Umbraco Commerce empowers users to build online stores as simple or as complex at their needs require. With flexible customisation, multi-market support, and open design functionalities, Umbraco commerce is an all-in-one eCommerce solution that rivals any competitor.
Please note these packages require the expertise of an Umbraco developer to implement fully, why not contact Northern Wolf today to see if we can help you with this?
What else?
Beyond its technical capabilities, Umbraco shines through its strong community and user management features. Whether you're an individual editor, part of a small team, or overseeing a
larger enterprise, Umbraco provides flexible user roles and permissions, ensuring that content management remains both secure and accessible. Members and user management tools allow businesses to create tailored workflows, enabling editors, developers, and administrators to collaborate efficiently. This adaptability makes Umbraco not just a powerful CMS, but a platform that evolves with the needs of its users, fostering an environment where content and collaboration go hand in hand.
In exploring the Umbraco back-office, we've seen how its intuitive structure and functionality make content management seamless. From navigation and tree structures to document types and properties, Umbraco simplifies content creation, organisation, and publishing, ensuring efficiency for editors at every level. The media section centralises asset management, making multimedia integration straightforward, while the extendibility of Umbraco through packages enhances its flexibility and adaptability.
Ultimately, mastering the Umbraco back-office empowers users to streamline their workflows and manage content with confidence. With its user-friendly interface and robust capabilities, Umbraco stands as a reliable choice for content management, catering to both beginners and seasoned professionals alike.
