Glossary

Brightspot CMS is simple and intuitive, but does use some unique language sprinkled in certain places. If you're stumped by a term while working with Brightspot CMS, check the list of terms & their definitions here.


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A row or column of links for sharing an asset to a social network.

A relationship a visitor creates with an asset. Examples of affinities include the following:

  • Visitor follows an asset
  • Visitor bookmarks an asset
  • Visitor shares an asset
  • Visitor purchases an asset

Archiving has two effects:

  • If the content has a URL, archiving removes the URL from the published site so visitors can no longer view it.
  • Removes the content from search results within Brightspot so editors can no longer reference it on another page, asset or module.

You can restore or permanently delete archived content. For details, see Archiving and deleting assets.

A piece of content, such as an article, image, or video. Assets can also be components of other assets—an author can be an asset that is part of an article. You can see the types of content from which you can create assets by clicking add in the header.

A request for items associated with a pitch. Assignments often have a lead editor, an assignee generating the content, and a due date.

A group of visitors to which tailored content can be delivered at specified times to specified devices.

A search for assets in Brightspot. You perform content searches in the search panel.

A schedule that includes the earliest date and time when all of an editor’s new and modified content will be published.

A group of assets, grouped as such in search results. Actions on multiple assets such as archiving, sharing, and opening work streams are often easier to do with collections.

The widget for picking a color's hex value in Brightspot.

Area of the content edit page where editors develop content. A content edit form typically consists of several fields, and can vary depending on the content type.

The content edit page contains the fields, widgets, and editorial toolbar for developing, managing, and publishing content. The available widgets can vary depending on the content type.

A type of search panel opened from a selection field that displays assets that you can select for a list. For example, the content edit form for an article may have a field for selecting an author. When you click the author field, Brightspot displays a content picker listing the existing authors you can select.

A mechanism for automatically populating a content edit form for a given content type. For example, you can create a content template that automatically populates an article’s headline, body text, and image. You can define content templates at the role level or user level, or create site-specific combinations for roles and users.

A type of content from which assets, modules, or landing pages may be created, such as articles, lists, or section pages.

The top-level Brightspot page containing links for managing content, work streams, and scheduled events. The dashboard is the landing page users see after logging in to Brightspot. Administrators can customize the dashboard to fit an organization’s needs.

The URL Brightspot uses when sending notifications that include links, such as emails or text messages. Default tool URLs are often similar to the URLs for published content. For example, if published content appears at http://www.brightspoteditors.com/, the corresponding default tool URL may be http://editors.brightspoteditors.com/.

The method by which Brightspot delivers a subscription’s messages. Brightspot can send messages through the browser, email, and text messaging, and via communication platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, depending on if you have these integrations enabled.

In the editorial context, a dictionary is a list of names, technical terms, acronyms, or other nomenclature that you do not want to be flagged as spelling errors.

In the visitor-search context, a dictionary is a list of terms and associated variants. When a visitor searches for a term in the dictionary, Brightspot includes in the search results a spotlight.

A pre-published version of an asset that is labeled with the Draft status in the Revisions Widget. If the asset participates in a Workflow, the workflow status is indicated, for example, Submitted, Approved, or Rejected.

After the initial publication of the draft, all subsequent updates to the asset are revisions, that is, post-published versions.

An object embedded in the rich-text editor, such as media, a promo, pull quote, external content, and many other assets in Brightspot.

A content template that appears as its own content type. For example, if you have a content type Article, you can create an extra template Story that has the same structure as Article.

Configuration settings that apply to all users of a Brightspot application, unless some or all of the settings are overridden by a system level that is of more immediate precedence than global (for example, site-level settings).

A Sub-Navigation that contains groups of Navigation Items.

An item that appears above a published page’s header. Hats are typically very brief messages.

A widget for editing images on the content edit form for editing images.

An in-CMS search of a third-party content provider, such as Getty Images.

The identifier Brightspot uses to refer to an object.

Internal name

An asset visitors see typically after a headline and before the body text. Depending on your version of Brightspot, leads can be images, videos, or modules.

A language-region pair that characterizes language, currency symbol, date and time format, and other conventions used in a particular geographical region.

A utility that displays a preview of the item currently in the content edit form. You can use Looking Glass to preview content on different devices.

A container for content that supports or supplements the main asset on a page, like an article. There are several types of modules, such as container, list, promo, and quote.

A mechanism for sending messages to editors and administrators when events occur. For example, you can receive notifications when you are mentioned in a conversation or when content is published.

An object associated with only one other object. Examples include the following:

  • An editor creates a one-off dashboard; no other editors can use that dashboard.
  • An editor assigns a one-off image to an article; no other editor can use that image.

The visibility icon on the editorial toolbar that displays the preview pane.

A widget on the dashboard that provides quick access to creating new content types and editing existing assets.

A widget that displays a list of assets containing the current asset. For example, if you are viewing an author in the content edit page, the References widget lists articles written by that author.

A post-published version of an asset that, when published, replaces the live version of the asset. Prior to publication, assets are in the draft state.

A widget on the content edit page that lists all current and previous revisions of an asset.

A version of a published asset that will be visible on a website at a future time.

A field for selecting an item, either from an abbreviated list or a content picker.

An object available for use with other objects. Examples include the following:

  • An editor creates a shared dashboard; other editors can use that dashboard.
  • An editor creates a shared image for an article; other editors can use that image.

A website to which Brightspot publishes content.

A user-defined category of sites. For example, a news organization could associate its websites with one or more categories, like sports, world news, and arts. A website can belong to more than one category.

An identifier for an asset, typically used in the asset’s permalink. Brightspot automatically generates slugs from an asset’s headline or title.

A Navigation Item that links to a post on a social network.

A promo associated with a search term. Brightspot displays the spotlight when displaying results for the search term.

A palette of seven colors recommended by a site designer to use in a publication.

Protocol and domain name editors use to access Brightspot, such as http://editors.brightspot.com/.

A widget in the content edit page listing an asset’s URLs. Clicking a link in this widget opens the asset (if published) in your web browser.

An editor who opened an asset in the content edit page.

A component of a Brightspot page that provides links or fields for entering, viewing, and updating information. The following image is an example of the Recent Activity widget.

Recent activity widget
Recent Activity widget

An assignment for one or more assets. For example, an editor can create a work stream to fact-check a group of articles, and then assign that work stream to the copy-edit department.

Brightspot is packaged with content types that get you up and running in a matter of days, including assets, modules and landing pages.

Content types
Modules
Landing pages
Our robust, flexible Design System provides hundreds of pre-built components you can use to build the presentation layer of your dreams.

Content types
Modules
Landing pages
Everything you need to know when creating, managing, and administering content within Brightspot CMS.

Dashboards
Publishing
Workflows
Admin configurations
A guide for installing, supporting, extending, modifying and administering code on the Brightspot platform.

Field types
Content modeling
Rich-text elements
Images
A guide to configuring Brightspot's library of integrations, including pre-built options and developer-configured extensions.

Google Analytics
Shopify
Apple News