In this article, I'm going to document the functional requirements specification for the "content administration system," that is to say, the document and site editing system. In future articles, I'm going to document the functional requirements specification for the XML API and the functional requirements specification for the "content display/page rendering system."

Hey you! Stop nodding off! This is important stuff.

There are a few things to notice about this functional requirements specification.

• It's pretty dry and boring. That may be true, but read it carefully, and you'll get a great insight into the features and capabilities of the software.

• Every requirement has an index number. This is critical for ensuring that requirements are traceable. A traceable requirement is one that can be clearly identified in the functional requirements specification and can also be clearly identified in the software. Traceable requirements ensure that everyone is talking about the same thing when writing and debugging the software.

• Requirements are brief and to the point. This makes for clarity, ensuring minimal scope for misunderstanding. Requirements may have narrative, but they should steer towards being "short statements of the required functionality." It will be necessary to include narrative to explain the underlying concepts of various requirements in detail.

Without further ado, here is the functional requirements specification--content administration system:

1.1 Content document - content fields 1.1.1 There must be only one type of content document, adaptable to all requirements. 1.1.2 Documents must have a structured format. 1.1.3 Documents must include a "headline" field 1.1.4 Documents must include a "headline image" field 1.1.5 Documents must include an "intro line" field 1.1.6 Documents must include an "abstract" field 1.1.7 Documents must include a "pull quote" field 1.1.8 Documents must include a "footer" field 1.1.9 Documents must include a "copyright text" field 1.1.10 Documents must include a "browser title" field 1.1.11 Documents must include a "meta tags" field 1.1.12 Documents must include three fields to allow up to three levels of categorization 1.1.13 Documents must include fields for up to eight links to related documents 1.1.14 Documents must include fields for link text for links to related documents 1.1.15 Documents must include fields for up to eight links to related email addresses 1.1.16 Documents must include fields for link text for links to related email addresses 1.1.17 Documents must include fields for up to eight links to related URLs 1.1.18 Documents must include fields for link text for links to related URLs 1.1.19 Documents must include a link to the "next page" document 1.1.20 Documents must include a field for link text for the "next page" 1.1.21 Documents must include a link to the "previous page" document 1.1.22 Documents must include a field for link text for the "previous page" 1.2 Content document - section fields 1.2.1 Documents must include up to eight sections 1.2.2 Each document section must include a "heading" field 1.2.3 Each document section must include a "body text" field 1.2.4 The "body text" field must allow the end user to enter the main text of the document without any HTML at all, if they choose 1.2.5 The "body text" field must allow the end user to enter the main text of the document with HTML included, if they choose 1.2.6 Each document section must include a "header image" field 1.2.7 Each document section must include a "footer image" field 1.3 Content document - image fields 1.3.1 Images must be stored inside documents 1.3.2 Images may be either GIF or JPEG 1.3.3 Each image must include an associated ALT text field 1.3.4 Each image must include the facility to link an email address, or link to a URL or link to another document 1.3.5 Each image must include an option to specific whether links should open in the current window or in a new window 1.3.6 Each image must include an option to specify "alignment on page" - left/right/center 1.3.7 It must be possible to add any of the following images for each document: 1.3.7.1 Large site logo 1.3.7.2 Background image 1.3.7.3 Bullet image 1.3.7.4 Next page image 1.3.7.5 Previous page image 1.3.7.6 Document link image 1.3.7.7 Related site image 1.3.7.8 Related document image 1.3.7.9 Related email image 1.3.7.10 Thumbnail image 1.3.7.11 Small logo image 1.3.7.12 Top of page image 1.3.7.13 Headline image 1.3.7.14 Section one heading image 1.3.7.15 Section one footer image 1.3.7.16 Section two heading image 1.3.7.17 Section two footer image 1.3.7.18 Section three heading image 1.3.7.19 Section three footer image 1.3.7.20 Section four heading image 1.3.7.21 Section four footer image 1.3.7.22 Section five heading image 1.3.7.23 Section five footer image 1.3.7.24 Section six heading image 1.3.7.25 Section six footer image 1.3.7.26 Section seven heading image 1.3.7.27 Section seven footer image 1.3.7.28 Section eight heading image 1.3.7.29 Section eight footer image 1.4 Content document - document status fields 1.4.1 Documents must include a "publication date" field 1.4.2 Documents must include an "author name" field 1.4.3 Documents must include an "author email address" field 1.4.4 Documents must include an "major version number" field 1.4.5 Documents must include an "minor version number" field 1.4.6 Documents must include an "archive status" field 1.4.7 Documents must include an "automatically archive" field 1.4.8 Documents must include an "automatic archive date" field 1.4.9 Documents must include an "document hidden status" field 1.4.10 Documents must include an "automatically unhide" field 1.4.11 Documents must include an "automatic unhide date" field 1.4.12 Documents must include an "deletion status" field 1.4.13 Documents must include an "automatically delete" field 1.4.14 Documents must include an "automatic deletion date" field 1.5 Content document - display properties fields: 1.5.1 It must be possible to specify various display templates to be used for this document under various circumstances, as follows: 1.5.1.1 Graphics template 1.5.1.2 Text mode template 1.5.1.3 Shockwave template 1.5.1.4 Printer template 1.5.1.5 Alternate template 1.5.2 The content document must include an "Allow template override" field - this specifies whether or not the end user can dynamically change the display template via a URL parameter 1.5.3 The content document must include a field to specify the "Text properties scheme" for this document (a text properties scheme is a named collection of fonts, sizes, styles and colours which is applied to structured document elements such as headline, abstract etc) 1.5.4 The content document must include a field to specify the "Default document margin" - this is the space between the document and the other page elements 1.5.5 The content document must include a field to specify the "Default document width" - this is the width of the table used for displaying the document, in pixels 1.5.6 The content document must include a field to specify the "Width of menu" - this is the width in pixels allowed for the menu on the left hand side of the screen 1.5.7 The content document must include a field to specify the "Default copyright text" 1.5.8 The content document must include a field to specify the "Open related site links in" - either current window or a new window 1.5.9 The content document must include a field to specify the "Open related document links in" - either the current window or a new window 1.5.10 The content document must include a field to specify the "Browser/meta title" 1.5.11 The content document must include a field to specify the "Meta keywords" 1.5.12 The content document must include a field to specify the "Meta description" 1.6 Content document - site index fields 1.6.1 A "site index" is a categorised list of all documents in the site 1.6.2 Documents must include the option to display up to eight "site indexes" per document 1.6.3 For each of eight site indexes per document, it must be possible to specify: 1.6.3.1 Whether or not to display the current site index 1.6.3.2 The ability to select whether to display only published or only archived documents 1.6.3.3 The ability to specify whether to display "headline only" or "publication date and headline" or "creation date and headline" or "modification date and headline" 1.6.3.4 The ability to specify "sort direction" as being ascending or descending 1.6.3.5 The ability to specify whether documents should be "grouped by category", "grouped by month" or "not grouped" 1.6.3.6 The ability to specify whether grouped documents should be indented when displayed 1.6.3.7 The ability to specify that "only the first X documents in the index are to be displayed" 1.6.3.8 The option to display documents only from a specific level in the category hierarchy 1.7 Global site menu 1.7.1 It must be possible to build a dynamic menu structure for the site 1.7.2 Each menu item must have a text label. 1.7.3 Each menu item may include an optional image 1.7.4 Each menu item may have an optional rollover image 1.7.5 It must be possible to specify whether to display the menu item as text or as an image 1.7.6 Each menu item may be positioned in one of three levels of hierarchy 1.7.7 Menu options can link to documents, email addresses or external URLs 1.7.8 Menu items must include a "sort number" allowing control over positioning within the menu structure 1.8 Global site configuration 1.8.1 Global site configuration settings allow a single location for site-wide settings (to change background image across the site for example) 1.8.2 Where a field is specified in the global site configuration and also specified in the document, then the document-level setting takes precedence 1.8.3 The site configuration document must include a "site name" field 1.8.4 The site configuration document must allow the user to nominate one document as the "home page" of the site - the "home page" is the page first displayed when a user visits the site 1.8.5 The site configuration document must allow the user to nominate one document as the "search page" of the site - the "search page" is the page used to display results of full text searches 1.8.6 The site configuration document must include a "site current status" field specifying whether the site is currently "online" or "offline" 1.8.7 The site configuration document must include "default template" fields as follows: 1.8.7.1 Graphics template 1.8.7.2 Text mode template 1.8.7.3 Shockwave template 1.8.7.4 Printer template 1.8.7.5 Alternate template 1.8.8 The site configuration document must include an "Allow template override" field - this specifies whether or not the end user can dynamically change the display template via a URL parameter 1.8.9 The site configuration document must include a field to specify the site default for the "Text properties scheme" (a text properties scheme is a named collection of fonts, sizes, styles and colours which is applied to structured document elements such as headline, abstract etc) 1.8.10 The site configuration document must include a field to specify the site default for "Default document margin" - this is the space between the document and the other page elements 1.8.11 The site configuration document must include a field to specify the site default for "Default document width" - this is the width of the table used for displaying the document, in pixels 1.8.12 The site configuration document must include a field to specify the site default for "Width of menu" - this is the width in pixels allowed for the menu on the left hand side of the screen 1.8.13 The site configuration document must include a field to specify the site default for "Default copyright text" 1.8.14 The site configuration document must include a field to specify the site default for "Open related site links in" - either current window or a new window 1.8.15 The site configuration document must include a field to specify the site default for "Open related document links in" - either the current window or a new window 1.8.16 The site configuration document must include a field to specify the site default for "Browser/meta title" 1.8.17 The site configuration document must include a field to specify the site default for the "Meta keywords" field 1.8.18 The site configuration document must include a field to specify the site default for the "Meta description" field 1.8.19 The site configuration document must include fields to specify the default images for site 1.8.19.1 Large site logo 1.8.19.2 Document background image 1.8.19.3 Bullet image 1.8.19.4 Next page image 1.8.19.5 Previous page image 1.8.19.6 Document link image 1.8.19.7 Related site image 1.8.19.8 Related document image 1.8.19.9 Related email image 1.8.19.10 Top of page image 1.8.19.11 Small site logo image 1.9 Text properties schemes 1.9.1 A text properties scheme is a named collection of fonts, sizes, styles and colours which is applied to structured document elements such as headline, abstract etc. 1.9.2 A text properties scheme can be applied to the entire site or to an individual document 1.10 Text properties for any structured page element should include: 1.10.1 Font name 1.10.2 Font size 1.10.3 Font style (bold, italic, underline) 1.10.4 Font color 1.11 Page elements which require text properties include: 1.11.1 Headline 1.11.2 Abstract 1.11.3 Footer 1.11.4 Section heading 1.11.5 Section body 1.11.6 Related Links & rollover 1.11.7 Previous / Next Links & rollover 1.11.8 Caption 1.11.9 Quote Text 1.11.10 Quote Author 1.11.11 Copyright Text 1.11.12 Publication date 1.11.13 Author name 1.11.14 Site indexes 1.11.14.1 Primary category 1.11.14.2 Secondary category 1.11.14.3 Tertiary category 1.11.14.4 Documents 1.11.15 Menu Options 1.11.15.1 Level 1 & rollover 1.11.15.2 Level 2 & rollover 1.11.15.3 Level 3 & rollover