Integration with Your Project

When to Create a Blueprint

Create a blueprint after you have a fully functional website in Bloomreach Content. Blueprints require an existing, working website to ensure that the configuration and content structure are complete and accurate. Once your website or channel is built, copy its configuration and content structure into the blueprint.

Determine the appropriate level of detail for your blueprint. For example, if your channel type’s homepage layout includes three regions—a header, body, and footer—you can choose how specific each region should be. If you define the header to always include a logo, a top menu, and a search box, every channel created from this blueprint will have that exact header layout. Removing the search box for a specific channel will be difficult. The more detailed your blueprint, the less flexible it becomes for future channels. Conversely, if the blueprint is too generic, you will need to manually configure missing details, such as header content, for each generated channel.

Before creating a blueprint, finalize the design and features of your channel type. Complete the business process for defining channel features, then create the blueprint. All channels generated from the blueprint will inherit these features.

Updating a Blueprint

After you create a blueprint and generate a new channel from it, you may need to update the blueprint to meet new functional requirements.

Channels created from a blueprint are independent clones of the blueprint’s configuration and, optionally, its content structure. If you update the blueprint, you must also update any existing channels that were based on the original blueprint if you want them to reflect the changes. Bloomreach Content does not provide tools to track which blueprint was used to create a channel. You must manually identify and update all affected channels.