Content management for rich media publishing system

1. A content management system for media publishing, comprising:

a plurality of content management tools for managing media contents during a publication process, said plurality of content management tools providing transcoding to convert a format of a selected media item to a specific target format of a media slot corresponding to said selected media item;

a publishing pipeline configured to operate in concert with said plurality of content management tools during the publication process to control development, distribution, and access of the media contents,

wherein said publishing pipeline provides a plurality of environments for staged and organized development and publication of the media contents, the plurality of environments including a development/production environment, a staging environment, and a live environment; and

a producer configured to generate and edit templates of media items and associated data when the plurality of environments is in a development/production environment,

wherein each template of said templates includes a number of media slots, and each media slot defines a genre of media and a specific target format that is accepted by said each media slot, and

wherein the format of said selected media item does not need to match said specific target format of said media slot corresponding to said selected media item because said transcoding by said plurality of content management tools provides the conversion of the selected media item format to said specific target format.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the publishing pipeline include a plurality of producers configured to push new media content through the publishing pipeline onto live environment.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein said plurality of content management tools allows each producer to manage taxonomies and editorial content of various types of websites.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein said content management system is a system resident on a client computer.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein said content management system includes a net based application.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of content management tools includes taxonomies to define an overall dynamic site content structure of said content management system.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of content management tools includes a create-once-render-everywhere (CORE) user interface manager to support building, editing, and publishing a media project including media contents.

8. A method of managing media contents and data, comprising:

providing a plurality of content management tools to transcode and convert a format of a selected media item to a specific target format of a media slot corresponding to said selected media item;

configuring a publishing pipeline to operate in concert with said plurality of content management tools during a publication process to control development, distribution, and access of the media contents and data.

wherein said configuring a publishing pipeline provides a plurality of environments for staged and organized development and publication of the media contents and data,the plurality of environments including a development/production environment, a staging environment, and a live environment; and

generating and editing templates of media items and associated data when the plurality of environments is in a development/production environment,

wherein each template of said templates includes a number of media slots, and each media slot defines a genre of media and a specific target format that is accepted by said each media slot, and

wherein the format of said selected media item does not need to match said specific target format of said media slot corresponding to said selected media item because said transcoding by said plurality of content management tools provides the conversion of the selected media item format to said specific target format.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: maintaining a separate storage for each environment.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: migrating the templates of media contents and associated data to the staging environment.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

testing and reviewing the templates of media contents and associated data in the staging environment.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

migrating the tested and reviewed templates of media contents and associated data to the live environment.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

enabling users to access the templates of media contents and associated data in the live environment for member publishing.

14. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

allowing producers to import new media contents and associated data into a table in the live environment.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

flagging the new media contents and associated data when the producer imports new media contents and associated data into the table.

16. The method of claim 8 , wherein said configuring a publishing pipeline includes providing a developing/production environment.

17. The method of claim 8 , wherein said configuring a publishing pipeline includes providing a staging environment.

18. The method of claim 8 , wherein said configuring a publishing pipeline includes providing a live environment.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein said configuring a publishing pipeline includes pushing new media content through said publishing pipeline onto the live environment.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein said providing a plurality of content management tools includes managing taxonomies and editorial content of various types of websites.

21. The method of claim 20 , further comprising:

storing the taxonomies as a flat table of individual nodes that have parent links and associated data.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the associated data includes a business name.

23. The method of claim 8 , wherein the taxonomies are configured in a tree structure.

24. A computer program, stored in a tangible storage medium, for use in managing media contents, the program comprising executable instructions that cause a computer to:

provide a plurality of content management tools to transcode and convert a format of a selected media item to a specific target format of a media slot corresponding to said selected media item;

configure a publishing pipeline to operate in concert with said plurality of content management tools during publication process to control access and distribution of the media contents,

wherein said publishing pipeline provides a plurality of environments for staged and organized development and publication of the media contents, the plurality environments including a development/production environment, a staging environment, and a live environment; and

generate and edit templates of media items and associated data when the plurality of environments is in a development/production environment,

wherein each template of said templates includes a number of media slots, and each media slot defines a genre of media and a specific target format that is accepted by said each media slot, and

wherein the format of said selected media item does not need to match said specific target format of said media slot corresponding to said selected media item because said transcoding by said plurality of content management tools provides the conversion of the selected media item format to said specific target format.

25. The computer program of claim 24 , wherein said configuring a publishing pipeline includes pushing new media content through said publishing pipeline onto the live environment.

26. The computer program of claim 24 , wherein said providing a plurality of content management tools includes managing taxonomies and editorial content of various types of websites.

27. The computer program of claim 26 , further comprising:

storing the taxonomies as a flat table of individual nodes that have parent links and associated data.

28. A content management system for media publishing, comprising:

a content management means for managing media contents during a publication process, said content management means configured to transcode and convert a format of a selected media item to a specific target format of a media slot corresponding to said selected media item;

a pipeline means for operating in concert with said content management means during the publication process to control access and distribution of the media contents,

wherein said pipeline means provides a plurality of environments for staged and organized development and publication of the media contents, the plurality of environments including a development/production environment, a staging environment, and a live environment; and

a producing means for generating and editing templates of media items and associated data when the plurality of environments is in a development/production environment,

wherein each template of said templates includes a number of media slots, and each media slot defines a genre of media and a specific target format tat is accepted by said each media slot, and

wherein the format of said selected media item does not need to match said specific target format of said media slot corresponding to said selected media item because said transcoding by said plurality of content management tools provides the conversion of the selected media item format to said specific target format.

29. A content management system for media publishing, comprising:

a content management means for managing media contents during a publication process, said content management means configured to transcode and convert a format of a selected media item to a specific target format of a media slot corresponding to said selected media item;

a pipeline means for operating in concert wit said content management means during the publication process to control development, distribution, and access of the media contents,

wherein said pipeline means provides a plurality of environments for staged and organized development and publication of the media contents the plurality of environments including a development/production environment, a staging environment, and a live environment; and

a producing means for generating and editing templates of media items and associated data when the plurality of environments is in a development/production environment,

wherein each template of said templates includes a number of media slots, and each media slot defines a genre of media and a specific target format that is accepted by said each media slot, and

wherein the format of said selected media item does not need to match said specific target format of said media slot corresponding to said selected media item because said transcoding by said plurality of content management tools provides the conversion of the selected media item format to said specific target format.