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GovCMS API promises easier content management
The 25 agencies using Australia's whole-of-government content management system will now be able to cross-publish and update information automatically through a new set of application programming interfaces (APIs).
The govCMS team today announced its "government as an API" service, which is powered by Acquia Content Hub technology.
Acquia's software is relatively new, having launched in October last year. It acts as a central, cloud-based repository that allows content to be reused and updated across other sites and commerce platforms.
The API access means site operators can ensure content changes are replicated across multiple sites and channels without manual updating.
"Government agencies need to adapt and iterate to keep up with the rapidly evolving digital landscape," the govCMS team wrote.
"This makes the need to discover, repurpose and share or consume government content in real time greater than ever before.
"Until now, sharing content and establishing a 'single source of truth' has been hampered by the complexities of ensuring content is updated when re-used by other sites or systems."
The govCMS API can pull and share content both within the govCMS family of sites as well as external platforms. Once pulled into the "content hub", the information is normalised to ensure the content is uniform wherever it is hosted.
The govCMS team expects the API service will be used in few different ways, including:
- for content published across several channels (kiosks, web, mobile, store displays etc);
- to collate topical information across agencies into one location;
- to shift content from non-Drupal sites into the content hub for normalisation and delivery into govCMS sites;
- to publish government content to other, non-government websites; and
- to allow the private and non-profit sectors to reuse relevant government data in "creative" ways.
GovCMS is based on the open source Drupal platform and was officially set live mid last year.
It provides agencies with a hosting and content management bundle intended to remove costly hosting fees and allow them to benefit from economies of scale, while providing uniformity for the multitude of federal government websites.
It is supported by Acquia, with Amazon Web Services providing the public cloud platform.
