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Learning Path: CMS Developer Fundamentals

⏱ 6–8 hours beginner
📜Foundationcms

Who this path is for

Section titled “Who this path is for”

You are a developer new to Optimizely CMS. You may have .NET experience, frontend experience, or both. By the end of this path, you will understand how CMS works, have built a working site, and know where to find answers for advanced scenarios.

How to use this path

Section titled “How to use this path”

Work through the steps in order. Each step builds on the previous one. Concepts give you the mental model; the tutorial gives you hands-on experience; guides teach specific tasks; reference pages give you the lookup details.

Estimated total time: 6–8 hours (spread across multiple sessions is fine).

Step 1: Understand what CMS is and where it fits

Section titled “Step 1: Understand what CMS is and where it fits”

📖 Read — What is Optimizely CMS?

You will learn:

  • What problems CMS solves
  • Where CMS fits in the Optimizely One platform
  • The difference between SaaS and PaaS
  • How CMS connects to Experimentation, Personalization, Graph, and Opal

Time: 15 minutes

Step 2: Learn how content modeling works

Section titled “Step 2: Learn how content modeling works”

📖 Read — Content Modeling in Optimizely

You will learn:

  • Content types (page, block, media) and how they relate
  • Properties and their data types
  • Why blocks enable composable pages
  • 5 design principles for effective content models
  • How modeling decisions affect headless delivery through Graph

Time: 20 minutes

Step 3: Build your first CMS site

Section titled “Step 3: Build your first CMS site”

🛠️ Do — Build Your First CMS Site

You will build:

  • A working CMS project from an empty template
  • An ArticlePage content type with properties
  • A CallToActionBlock for composable layouts
  • A StartPage with ContentArea
  • Razor views with on-page editing

Time: 90 minutes

Step 4: Deepen your content type skills

Section titled “Step 4: Deepen your content type skills”

📋 Follow — Create a Content Type

You will learn:

  • Page types vs block types in detail
  • GUID management and GroupName strategy
  • AvailableContentTypes restrictions
  • Common issues and fixes

Time: 15 minutes

Step 5: Master property configuration

Section titled “Step 5: Master property configuration”

📋 Follow — Define Properties on Content Types

You will learn:

  • All property types and their editor controls
  • Validation attributes (Required, StringLength, Range, Regex)
  • Tab grouping for organized editing forms
  • Selection factories for dropdown properties
  • Default values

Time: 20 minutes

Step 6: Understand content delivery with Graph

Section titled “Step 6: Understand content delivery with Graph”

📖 Read — Content Delivery with Optimizely Graph

You will learn:

  • How Graph indexes CMS content automatically
  • The GraphQL API and how content types become queryable
  • When to use traditional rendering vs headless vs hybrid
  • Authentication modes and caching strategies

Time: 20 minutes

Step 7: Connect CMS to Graph

Section titled “Step 7: Connect CMS to Graph”

📋 Follow — Set Up Optimizely Graph

You will do:

  • Install the Graph NuGet package
  • Configure credentials
  • Trigger a content sync
  • Write your first GraphQL query
  • Query content in C#, JavaScript, and GraphQL

Time: 30 minutes

Step 8: Learn the API reference

Section titled “Step 8: Learn the API reference”

🔍 Reference — Browse these pages as needed:

Time: Browse as needed (30–60 minutes for initial read)

Step 9: Understand personalization

Section titled “Step 9: Understand personalization”

📖 Read — Visitor Groups and Personalization

You will learn:

  • Three personalization approaches (visitor groups, ODP segments, Web Experimentation)
  • When to use each approach
  • How to create custom visitor group criteria in code
  • How personalization connects to experimentation

Time: 20 minutes

Step 10: Understand the platform identity layer

Section titled “Step 10: Understand the platform identity layer”

📖 Read — Opti ID and the Optimizely One Ecosystem

You will learn:

  • How Opti ID provides SSO across all Optimizely products
  • Organization and role management
  • Why Opti ID is required for Opal
  • Enterprise SSO integration options

Time: 15 minutes

What to do next

Section titled “What to do next”

After completing this path, you are ready to:

  • Build production sites — Apply content modeling principles to real projects
  • Add personalization — Follow the Configure Visitor Groups guide
  • Manage users — Follow the Manage Users and Permissions guide
  • Explore experimentation — Learn how to A/B test CMS content (coming soon)
  • Prepare for certification — Visit Optimizely Academy for certification tracks