Features for Developers

Module Builder for easy customization

Customization is among the key features when choosing a CMS. Sitefinity’s Module builder offers unique productivity gains unrivalled by any other CMS. With the module builder you can:

Create your own custom modules directly from the UI. No need to use Visual Studio;
Set a custom type with custom fields for the module;
Automatically add the new widget to your toolbox;
Apply ready for use code-snippets that are generated for you in the UI;
Use the back-end module configurator to customize the look and feel of your module.

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Extensibility through ASP.NET Controls

In Sitefinity content is displayed by dragging and dropping widgets onto pages. Behind the scenes widgets are simply ASP.NET controls. This enables developers to add their own controls to Sitefinity’s widget toolbox. Once added, your ASP.NET controls can be used by content authors in Sitefinity’s user-friendly web interface.

Provider-based modules

Sitefinity’s modules (news, blogs, events, etc.) are based on the provider-model pattern. This enables developers to inherit from special base classes and create their own custom providers. These providers can replace Sitefinity’s default provider or can be added as an alternate provider without the need to implement a complex security strategy.

Powerful and easy to use API’s

There is no part of Sitefinity that can’t be accessed through its API. Furthermore, Sitefinity’s Fluent API is designed to be naturally intuitive through Visual Studio’s IntelliSense. Developers can begin by simply typing App.WorkWith() and then use IntelliSense and LINQ to compose rich interactions with Sitefinity. Sitefinity also includes a RESTful API built on WCF services. These web services ensure that external applications can be readily integrated with Sitefinity.

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HTML Control through ASP.NET Master Pages and ASCX templates

All content in Sitefinity is template-driven. For pages, these templates are based on ASP.NET Master Pages. The ContentPlaceHolders found inside these ASP.NET Master Pages become editable by content authors in Sitefinity. For widgets, these templates are driven by ASCX files and can be edited directly inside Sitefinity. This enables developers to explicitly control the markup applied to their website.

Based on technologies that you already understand

Full featured SDK with lots of samples

Sitefinity’s Software Development Kit contains a huge library of resources designed to help developers become productive quickly. This includes multiple starter kits, custom modules, custom widgets and documentation. Full source code is provided for all samples and detailed guides help introduce developers to Sitefinity’s core concepts. SDK project samples can be installed, used for experimentation, and then effortlessly reset later.

Sitefinity comes with Telerik’s RadControls and OpenAccess ORM

Telerik was founded on developer productivity tools and has accumulated a decade of experience helping developers be more productive. Telerik’s RadControls (AJAX, Silverlight) is a suite of UI controls that enable developers to quickly create rich user interfaces. Telerik’s OpenAccess is an enterprise-class Object Relational Mapper (ORM) for creating an application’s data layer. These products were used to build Sitefinity and they also come packaged with Sitefinity. Using these tools, developers will be more productive.

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Intuitive UI that empowers your end users

Sitefinity provides efficient marketing and content-editing tools empowering end users to take full control of the content authoring and publishing process. The familiar Word-like authoring environment and drag-and-drop page layout creation allow content authors to create dynamic pages and email campaigns. End users are able to experiment with page layouts, test different content versions, or even publish directly to social media sites without any help from the IT department.