In http://www.tridiondeveloper.com/intro-to-the-event-system I described the overall event system, listing many of the options available, but not describing them in detail. One of these options requires further examination: Asynchronous Events.
Asynchronous Events happen outside of the regular process of the code that is running. They may run now, or they may run later. You can think of Asynchronous Events as “Fire And Forget” rockets. Sometimes that’s exactly what you need, and sometimes that’s exactly the wrong thing. Let’s look at some scenarios for both.
I found out how to use a new CM-side extension point today; Renderers. I had been struggling for a while with the fact that SmartTarget does not index the Keyword key - which was precisely what I wanted to set up some promotion content selection filters on. It turns out to be quite easy, and indeed gives a generic method for messing with the content that SmartTarget indexes without having to fiddle about on the Delivery side with Java or Kettle.