Discover the power of Forge with its Q3 update

Deltatre’s publishing platform Forge enters the second half of the year with a new and important update.

Its third release for 2019 marks a new step forward and continues the refinement of existing fan engagement functionalities, on top of adding some new cutting-edge elements to the picture. At a time when customised content and a bespoke offering directed to specific audience groups is key, this powerful yet flexible and easy-to-use publishing platform represents the ideal destination for sports organisations of any size and profile.

Most noteworthy in this new version of Forge for editors is the inclusion of additional search functionalities and better personalisation of promoted content. For developers, a migration to .NET Core for the backend services is now complete, allowing the possibility to run also the back office on different cloud services - helping to always maintain a consistent deployment model and reducing hosting costs.

Read on to learn more.

#1. Content is now easier to find

The life of a content editor can be difficult. When producing content on tight deadlines and working around the clock, it becomes crucial to be able to retrieve information in a timely manner. The latest updates to Forge are designed to help editors find their content in an easier way and play a key role in leading an editorial team to success. 

A renewed UI simplifies filters and enhances the ‘Advanced Search’ panel. All of the most used filters are now at an editor’s fingertips. For example, think of the selection of the desired language to filter content - it’s now accessible through a dedicated control area which sits close to the Omnibox (similar to the traditional web browser address bar, but also usable as a search engine). Editors can now also easily retrieve the latest pieces of content that have been updated by just clicking the corresponding checkbox.

In addition, Forge’s new release also enhances suggestions on content matching the search terms on list pages. A user-friendly typeahead is now shown in the presence of correspondent items, and editors can seamlessly select specific entities without even losing contact with the keyboard, which you can see in the screengrab of our Forge back office.

#2. Fine-tuning on promoted content

Forge continues to be the ideal solution for organisations who want to monetize their content strategy with bespoke promotions. Enhancing some existing functionality, Deltatre’s publishing platform has now introduced a number of features that will improve the enhancement of content promoted through the platform.

Editors are now able to customise the content included on editorial selections. Think of captions for pictures or videos, as well as titles you want to appear to identify specific galleries. Each item can now be attributed to a different “value” when used on different promotion lists. This will help editors to adapt each piece of content and its presentation to the specific context of usage, as well as to decide whether or not an asset should appear to the end-user.

#3. A more powerful dashboard

The Q3 update brings to Forge a number of hints and functionalities to help editors better understand how their content is structured and how it can be promoted. Mentions of other entities (think player names, team names, or other elements) within the body of an article are now ‘tokenised’ and easily recognisable in the rich-text specific editors of Forge. The tokens can then become then the input for another process like parsing and text mining.

That’s not everything. End-users of Forge, in fact, can now better understand how lists of curated content are built. The position of their pieces of content can impact their efficiency both from an engagement and a monetisation perspective. Editors are now able to drag & drop pieces of content across the dashboard, with the changes reflecting in real-time on the front-end website or apps. This helps them to make sure all actions match the objectives set on their strategy.

#4. You choose how you run the back office

This release of Forge finally completes the migration to .NET Core for all the backend services of the publishing platform. It’s now possible to execute Forge’s back office also on Linux, using containers and selecting the cloud provider of choice. Operation and monitoring can also be performed consistently across a variety of hosting vendors. Talk about making life easier!

Improvements, with an eye on the future

Forge is the sports-specific publishing platform that is able to deal with any scale of project. Its ever-evolving architecture and design patterns allow scaling to exactly what is required. Performance and flexibility walk together with the new features implemented on the platform.

The fourth update of Forge is expected in Q4 when the platform will celebrate the end of a strong year with an even stronger profile and client base. We can’t wait to show you what we have in store!