Building blocks

Sitefinity CMS has the following essential components:

Pages and Page templates

Pages represent the canvas on which you build and structure your website. In addition, pages contain the administrative and content authoring tools you use to manage your website, create and edit pages, browse and organize the structure and appearance of your website.

You define the functionality of the page by adding widgets, such as login and navigation, as well as content. The widgets in the Content widget group are used to display content create with the content modules.

Page templates define the layout of a page, while you use themes to style the page.

Build-in and Dynamic modules

You create content using the Sitefinity CMS built-in content modules or using dynamic modules that you have created. A module represents a backend component, from which a user can create, delete, or modify certain type of content items (content types). The content you create using content modules is reusable, so other users can view, edit, and publish it. You then display content items on pages, using widgets.

Widgets and Widget templates

Content and functionality of Sitefinity CMS pages are defined through widgets. Anything you want your page to do, you must do it with a widget. Widgets allow you to display the content you create and configure how you want your content displayed. Sitefinity CMS comes with a set of built-in widgets, which can be directly used in the pages you create. You can customize these widgets and create new ones. 

Widget templates define the functionality and layout of widgets - how they behave when displaying content or other features. You can easily modify widget templates with the built-in editor.

Content items

After you create the layout of your page, you proceed with populating the page with content. Sitefinity CMS content is easy to create and reuse. Once you create news, an event, or other content item, it is stored in the Sitefinity CMS project and other users can view, use, and edit that content. 

You can also upload images, videos, and other files that you store in libraries. Content, created with the modules, is displayed on pages with the help of widgets. Sitefinity CMS has built-in modules for creating various types of contents, such as news, events, and blogs. Each type of content has a dedicated widget used to display it.