Xperience terminology glossary
This page provides an overview of the terminology used in the Kentico Xperience product and documentation. The glossary contains terms for technical users (developers, administrators) as well as business users (content editors, marketers).
You do not need to learn all of the terms by heart exactly as they are written here, but you can use the tables below as a reference if you encounter an unknown term while working in the Xperience environment. If you feel that an important term is missing from this page, feel free to leave us feedback via the Send us feedback button located in the page footer.
Term categories
General
Term | Description |
Administration interface | The Xperience administration interface is a web application with a user-friendly interface that allows you to set up and configure websites, as well as manage their content. Users manage the websites via so-called applications within the interface. In the background, the administration application accesses and modifies the database shared with the live site application. |
Application | Applications in the Kentico Xperience administration interface are sections that group together features and related functionality. Applications allow you to perform various types of tasks, display related information, or configure the system. For example, the Pages application allows you to manage the content, design, metadata, and various settings of your website’s pages. |
Application dashboard | The application dashboard is the first page that opens when you sign into the Xperience administration interface. The dashboard provides quick access to your most frequently used applications and supported objects. Applications and objects on the dashboard have the form of tiles. You can return to the dashboard from any part of the system by clicking the Home icon in the administration header. |
ASP.NET Core | ASP.NET Core is an open-source framework for building applications, and is one of the available development models in Kentico Xperience. The Core framework supports the MVC architecture, as well as other modern approaches. |
Code name | A code name refers to text that serves as a unique identifier of an object in Xperience. Most objects also have a Display name, which typically stores more user-friendly text and is displayed in the administration interface. |
Continuous integration | Continuous integration allows users (usually developers) to serialize data from the database into XML files on the file system. These files can then be added to a source control system and used to synchronize database data between different Xperience instances. |
Cookie level | The cookie level is a scale used in the implementation of the cookie policy in Xperience. The cookie level set for each visitor controls which cookies are stored in their browser, as different cookies used by the Xperience system require different cookie levels. |
Dancing Goat | Dancing Goat is a sample website project that showcases the features of the Kentico Xperience platform. Dancing Goat is included in the Xperience installer and can be used for evaluation, testing, or demonstration purposes. |
Display name | A display name refers to text displayed in the administration interface to identify an object or interface element. Most objects also have a Code name, which serves as a unique identifier among objects of the same type. |
DocumentQuery | DocumentQuery is an API (application programming interface) that enables developers to retrieve page data from the database in their code. DocumentQuery is based on the ObjectQuery API, and similarly provides an abstraction layer over the SQL database, with additional support for page-related functionality, such as workflow and versioning. |
Event log | The event log is an application that allows Xperience administrators to view important actions and events that happen in the system, for example, authentication attempts or various errors. |
Integration bus | The integration bus allows developers to connect Kentico Xperience with third-party systems, such as CRMs or ERPs. The purpose of the integration is to synchronize objects and pages in one or both directions. |
Live site application | Live site application refers to an application that provides a presentation layer for the content of a website. The content of the website is typically stored in a database shared with the Xperience administration application. |
Macro expressions | Macros are text expressions that the system evaluates and converts into values. By using macros, you can create dynamic content (for example in emails) and in general configure the application to perform different actions under different conditions. Macros range from simple expressions for loading values from data in the system, to complex sets of instructions that lead to a certain result. |
MVC 5 | MVC 5 is one of the development models available in Kentico Xperience. MVC is an abbreviation of Model/View/Controller – an application architecture used to divide programs into separate parts based on their responsibilities. |
ObjectQuery | The Xperience ObjectQuery API provides an abstraction layer over the SQL database. ObjectQuery enables developers to retrieve data from the database in their code. Advantages of ObjectQuery over SQL calls are strongly typed and enumerable results, independence on specific versions of SQL syntax, and security. |
Provider | Providers in the Xperience API are classes that allow the system to manipulate objects and perform various actions. The system uses various types of providers, for example, info providers, data providers, email providers, and file system providers. |
Role | Roles are objects that define authorization options for users, i.e. which actions they are allowed to perform on the live ite and within the Xperience administration interface. Roles provide an interface that maps permissions to users in a way that can easily be reused. Each role can be assigned to any amount of users and vice versa – a user can be a member of an unlimited number of roles. |
Staging | Staging allows you to easily transfer changes made to pages or objects from one Xperience instance to another (typically hosted on a different server). You can also perform complete synchronization of all pages and objects. Staging is particularly useful for websites with multiple environments, such as development, testing and live production. |
Content management
Term | Description |
Content model | A content model is a representation of the content’s structure (what the content consists of) and the relations between your content. A content model documents all the content that an organization produces (or a subset of the content that has a common purpose). The content model directly affects how you create, store, and use content in Kentico Xperience. |
Content type | Content types define a blueprint for any piece of content that editors produce. Each content type comes with a specific structure and instructions for how to input and store the data. Typical examples of web page content types are articles, news, or product pages. Website structure can also contain content types that represent much smaller pieces of information, such as videos, addresses of offices, or user testimonials. These content types are often repeated in different places or contexts across the whole website, thus making the content reusable. |
Media library | Media libraries allow you to store various types files, for example, photos, pictures, sound files, videos, package files, presentations, or documents. You can reuse files stored in media libraries throughout the system, e.g., on pages or in marketing emails. |
Page | Pages are the most important element of Kentico Xperience for storing the content of your website. In many cases, one page in the administration interface represents one page of your website. Pages can contain page builder content, page attachments, or structured content within their fields. |
Page attachment | Page attachments are files that are directly attached to a page. Page attachments stay linked to a page even when the page is copied or moved. |
Page type | Page types define the behavior and structure of pages. Each page is of a specific page type. Page types define the data structure, available functionality, usability scope, and behavior for the given pages. |
Rich text widget | The Rich text widget is provided in Kentico Xperience by default. It allows editors to add styled content to pages that use the page builder. The Rich text widget can be found only when editing pages in the Pages application on the Page tab. |
Translation service | Translation services allow you to automatically translate the content of your website. The system automatically ensures the transfer of data between the web site’s pages and translation providers. Translation data is exported and imported via files using the standard XML-based XLIFF format. |
Workflow | Workflow is a sequence of steps that define the life cycle of pages. This ensures the quality of content by setting up a reviewing and approval process. In such a process, individual roles and users can work with pages in certain steps of their life cycle, such as Edit, Published, Archived, etc. |
E-commerce
A glossary of e-commerce terminology is located on a dedicated page about the e-commerce solution.
Form builder
Term | Description |
Editing component | Form components are referred to as editing components when assigned to define the configuration interface of a property belonging to another form or page builder component. For example, a date-time input form component can be used to edit a widget property in the page builder configuration dialog. |
Form builder | The Xperience form builder offers an intuitive graphical editor that allows content creators and marketers to compose online forms. It is available on the Form builder tab of the Forms application when editing a form. |
Form component | Form components are reusable elements that allow content creators and marketers to compose forms via the form builder. Each component represents a specific type of form field, such as a text box for user input, a group of radio buttons, etc. Users are free to add, remove, or reorder individual form components and specify their properties via the form builder interface in the Forms application. |
Form section | Form sections define the layout of forms. They represent reusable pieces of markup that can store any number of form zones – areas where content editors can place form fields. |
Form widget | The Form widget is provided in Kentico Xperience by default. It allows editors to place forms into the content of pages that use the page builder. The Form widget can be found only when editing pages in the Pages application on the Page tab. |
Validation rule | Validation rules verify that the data input by users meets any requirements specified for the form. A validation rule evaluates data entered in one or more form fields and returns whether the input is valid. It also includes an error message that is displayed to users when they attempt to submit invalid input. |
Visibility condition | Visibility conditions restrict when and how form fields are displayed to users. The conditions can be based on specific criteria or on the values of other fields in the form. |
On-line marketing
Term | Description |
A/B testing | A/B testing is an Xperience feature that allows marketers to test the performance of email or page variants against each other. During the test, users are split between the variants and their performance is measured. Afterward, the variant with the best performance is displayed to the remaining majority of users to achieve maximum impact. |
Activity | Activities represent actions that website visitors perform on the live site. For example, the system logs activities when visitors view pages, purchase products, or subscribe to newsletters. |
Contact | Contacts represent individual visitors who view your websites. Contacts include both anonymous visitors and users who provide information by registering, filling in a form, subscribing, etc. The system automatically gathers data about contacts based on the actions and input of the associated visitors. |
Conversion |
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Contact group | Contact groups are segmentation units that enable you to sort contacts. You can either add contacts to groups manually or have the system populate groups automatically based on dynamically evaluated conditions. |
Email campaign | Email campaigns are a type of email feed that allows you to target and retarget every marketing email based on the impact of the previous email communication. For example, you can promote a marketing campaign by sending different marketing emails to different recipients. |
Email feed | All emails that you send as part of your marketing actions in Kentico Xperience are organized into email feeds. Xperience supports two types of email feeds: Email campaigns and Newsletters. |
Marketing automation | Marketing automation functionality in Xperience allows marketers to automate and optimize marketing campaigns and activities. Marketers configure processes that automatically run based on predefined triggers or are started manually for selected contacts. You can manage marketing automation via the Marketing automation application. |
Newsletter | Newsletters are a type of email feed that allows you to send marketing emails to recipients who subscribed to newsletters on your live sites. Newsletters are based on predefined templates, and every email can be edited and sent manually. |
Persona | Personas allow marketers to segment different types of website visitors. Using the Personas application, you can define personas that represent your site’s typical visitor groups. The system then assigns visitors to the persona they fit best based on data about the visitors and their behavior. You can use personas to create marketing conditions throughout the system (pages, emails, macros), for example to display different personalized content or to branch automation processes. |
Score | Scoring functionality (also referred to as lead scoring or engagement scoring) evaluates and ranks contacts based on their profile information and activity on the website. In the Scoring application, marketers define the parameters according to which contacts are scored. Based on the scores, the system can automatically recognize prospective customers among all of the contacts. The information gained from the score can assist marketers and salespeople to preferentially engage these customers. Scores can also be used to segment contacts or serve as triggers for marketing automation processes. |
Page builder
Term | Description |
Component | Page builder components are the building blocks of the page builder interface. They include widgets, page templates, sections, and personalization condition types. |
Configuration dialog | The configuration dialog is a modal dialog that allows content editors to set values for component properties. Developers define what input elements (editing components) are used to edit individual properties and content editors can manage these properties (e.g. widget properties) in the configuration dialog. |
Editable area | Editable areas are the top-level layout elements that define where the page builder interface is available. Editable areas are defined by developers in the code of pages in the live site application. |
Editing component | Form components are referred to as editing components when assigned to define the configuration interface of a property belonging to another form or page builder component. For example, a date-time input form component can be used to edit a widget property in the page builder configuration dialog. |
Inline editor | Inline editors are interactive page builder elements that allow content editors to enter or select the values of widget properties within the output of the related widget. They can be used as an alternative to the property configuration dialog, or in combination with it. For example, inline editors can range from basic value inputs to more advanced options, such as file uploaders or text areas with rich formatting options. |
Landing page | Landing pages are one of the main use cases for which the page builder functionality is intended. A landing page is a web page created specifically for a marketing campaign or a specific product. A landing page is a place where potential customers arrive after clicking a link, e.g., in an email or on a social network. |
Modal dialog | A modal dialog is a dialog window that appears on top of the main content. In the context of the page builder, modal dialogs provide an alternative way of editing the properties of components in the administration interface (not on the live site). When configuring a component, modal dialogs allow you to display an additional pop-up window, where the content editor can adjust the component’s properties. |
Page builder | The page builder is a user-friendly interface for page editing where non-technical users can manage content using configurable widgets prepared by the developers. Users can also work with page templates to quickly create new pages based on predefined layouts. |
Page template | Page templates allow content editors to choose from predefined page layouts when creating new pages, instead of creating each page from scratch. Page templates provide greater control over the layout of pages to content editors, without the need to ask developers to modify the code of their website. Content editors can also save the widget content and configuration of specific pages into reusable custom templates. |
Personalization condition | Personalization condtions are an on-line marketing integration that can be added to page builder widgets. Such conditions are prepared by developers, and allow editors to display different content based on the situation in which the page is viewed. This can help provide more accurately targeted information to visitors and increase the effectiveness of your website. For example, you can show modified text or additional offers to visitors who belong to a specific contact group or persona. |
Properties | Component properties are a set of variables that allow content editors to customize a component’s behavior or modify its content directly in the Pages application. Developers define these properties when developing individual page builder components. |
Section | Sections are reusable page components that specify the visual layout of widget zones – areas where content creators place widgets. Sections are fully customizable and developers have absolute freedom in the way they set each section’s layout. In the Pages application, content editors can choose which sections to add to a page, and thus adjust the structure of the page. A section may contain multiple widget zones. |
Selector | Selectors are system form components that enable users to select various types of content from the website. The system provides different selectors for pages in the content tree, media files from a site’s media libraries, unsorted page attachments added to pages via the Attachments tab, and Xperience objects in general. Selectors can be used to set properties of page builder components. |
Widget | Widgets are reusable page components that can be easily manipulated by content editors and other non-technical users. Widgets give non-technical users more power and flexibility when creating website pages or adjusting existing content. |
Widget zone | Widget zones are individual areas within a page builder section where content editors can place widgets. |