Brightspot Tours
The Tours plugin lets administrators create guided, step-by-step walkthroughs within the Brightspot CMS. Tours highlight specific fields, clusters, tabs, and widgets using contextual tooltips, helping users learn editorial workflows and discover features without leaving the CMS.
Key capabilities
- Create tours for specific CMS pages or for any asset of a content type
- Add steps targeting fields, clusters, tabs, dashboard widgets, content edit widgets, and CSS selectors (recommended only for developers)
- Configure an optional introductory popup before the first step
- Set tooltip placement per step
- Control which tours are visible to each role using granular permission settings
- Track per-user tour history so tours auto-show only on first visit or after an update
How it works
When a user opens a CMS page or content edit page, the Tours plugin checks whether any tours are configured for that page or content type. If a matching tour exists and the user has permission to view it, the plugin loads the tour steps and renders contextual tooltips using Shepherd.js. Brightspot records when each user last viewed each tour; if the tour has been updated since the user's last visit, it auto-shows again on the next visit.
Use cases
Newsrooms and digital media
Editor onboarding—A digital news organization creates type tours for each of its core content types—articles, photo galleries, and live blogs. New editorial staff are walked through each form on their first visit: where to enter SEO metadata, how to use the media picker, and how to set scheduling options. The tour auto-shows once and does not reappear unless the tour is updated, so experienced editors are never interrupted.
Post-launch feature rollout—After a CMS update introduces a redesigned publishing workflow, the editorial team creates a page tour for the content edit page highlighting the new fields and controls. Because Brightspot tracks when each user last viewed each tour, the tour auto-shows for all users on their next login—without requiring any manual notification.
Enterprise publishing
Distributed team training—A publishing organization with editorial teams across multiple time zones uses type tours to document internal style requirements directly in the CMS. Each content type has a tour explaining field-by-field expectations, reducing the need for separate training documents and cutting onboarding time for new contributors.
Platform administrators
Custom tool guidance—An administrator responsible for a custom CMS tool page creates a page tour that walks users through the interface step by step. Because the tour is attached to the specific page path, it appears automatically for users who have never visited the page, providing contextual help without requiring a separate documentation site.
Who this documentation is for
- Configuration — for administrators creating and managing tours
- Technical reference — for developers installing or extending the Tours plugin