The City of St. Louis, Missouri is an independent city and the 16th largest city in the United States.  Founded in 1764 by Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau, the City became a major port on the Mississippi River.

The City hired Fig Leaf Software to implement a new design within the CommonSpot Content Management System (CMS) to provide City residents, visitors and businesses to easily access information about the City.  The City selected the CommonSpot CMS because it provides an easy to use editing interface which empowers non-technical City staff to add and maintain Web site content. 

 Fig Leaf Software supported the City’s implementation of the new design templates within the new CMS and optimized the site by caching large amounts of content.  Fig Leaf Software created an architecture to whereby some of the Web content would be maintained in external databases and and the some of the content elements would be automatically generated leveraging the database content. The content caching strategy allows Web pages with dynamic content to load quickly.  

The City’s new CMS system metadata and taxonomy system which dynamically lists related content pages and leverages cached page relationships to provide optimal site performance.  Fig Leaf Software automated the creation of elements by creating a form which automatically generates all necessary pages and elements from the information entered by City staff.  Functional features of the site include:

• Request a City Service
• Address Search
• Work for the City Job Postings
• Doing Business in St. Louis Information
• Live & Work in St. Louis
• Visit & Play in St. Louis

Taking advantage of CMS functionality, a new graphical calendar was implemented to help organize events and display public or private events.  Events and Public Meetings are now displayed in relevant areas of the site.  Fig Leaf Software also  implemented a Google Search Appliance to power the global site search and allow site visitors to search the site and retrieve fast, relevant results.   Google Translate was implemented to enable users to translate Web site pages throughout the site and Google Maps is used to enable users to map location information and get directions to City buildings and locations.

 The new City of St. Louis, Missouri Web site provides fast, easy access to City content.  City staff who are content experts are now able to participate in managing and approving Web site content and event entries can be submitted by the public as well as City personnel.  The new site features rich functionality including:

• Spotlight Features
• Events Calendars
• Share and Print Functionality on all Pages
• Subscribe to Content
• User Controlled Font Size and Color
• Browse by Topic, Audience or Popular Links