Alresco functionality questions. Does it exist?

[grantgochnauer]

First off let me say that I have been a big integrator of Documentum versions 4 and 5 on large enterprise projects. I am currently evaluating using Alfresco for smaller clients with less enterprise level requirements that Documentum offers. However, there are some basic capabilities that a CMS or WCM need for our team to be able to leverage Alfresco for our clients.

Let me outline the components that I feel are pretty necessary for a CMS/WCM. Forgive me if I touch on things that Alfresco does have and I am unaware. In fact, I’d like to be pointed out for that type of discrepancy because that means the feature I am looking for exists �.

1)   Lifecycle. What I mean by this is that each piece of content in the CMS has a state attached to it. I have gone through the Alfresco 1.0 RC1 release and the only way I can see mimicking this concept is to create folders (WIP/Staging/Active) and move content from one folder to another via simple workflow. The reason this seems odd to me is that the state of the content is dependant on its location and not an intrinsic property of the content itself.
2)   Publishing and clear separation of content displayed on a website and the repository. With Documentum you can publish out content from your repository to another file location and database which contain all the meta-data about the content. This is great because if your CMS goes down, your public facing site will not.
3)   Templating. From what I understand about the new template feature introduced in 1.0RC1 is that it is more of a transformation layer and less of a user input template. When I think of template, I think of creating some concrete input form with various elements which guide the user in creating a new type of content. For example, I could have templates for home pages, modules, footers. Each template would have only the relevant questions inside like “titleâ€? or “header imageâ€? and so forth. The template system in Alfresco now seems to be more like take this HTML and make it into another HTML or other file format.
4)   User definable meta-data and content types (object types). I don’t see any way to create custom types of content which can be queried against in an application. For example, if I have 10 pieces of “general contentâ€?, I want to be able to add meta-data to each piece of that content. This meta-data could include information such as where this content should be displayed on the site or some other business metric. Also, it seems that if I create content in Alfresco, it’s a single type: html. What if I want to create and define my own types like a “homepageâ€? type or a “footerâ€? type? I don’t see a way to do this now.

Question
1)   What is the best way to query for content out of the repository? I am currently working on a Spring based platform (I notice you guys leverage Spring which is GREAT). It seems looking at the APIs available it’s through dependency injection (ala Spring) or Web Services. If I use IOC, doesn’t that mean that my platform which wants to use repository services have to be running in the same JVM?

I have listed some pretty large reaching features above and I realize Alfresco is still a young product. The reason I am writing this is because I believe Alfresco could become the #1 Open Source CMS out there. I am very excited about the CMS which is why I wanted to start this discussion.

Thanks,
Grant

[rdanner]

Grant

On #2, again it's all planned and will get implemented at some stage (may be someone out there will help).  We prefer taking general purpose approaches to providing functionality, so publishing out from the repository to an external "site" is just part of a general systems integration set of capabilities we'd like to have.  Approaches that we've been talking about include having an FTP rule action that could be triggered by a data event (e.g. life-cycle when implemented) for pushing out the content and a database export (of some kind - probably as XML) that gives the metadata in a simple schema.

We probably aren't far off giving people the basic elements that would allow them to do the final mapping to their live site.

Cheers
Paul.

We have built a Secure FTP action that we can apply with a rule.  I'd be happy to donate this code. I used some library (I can’t recall at the moment), but I can donate this, as long as the license is compatible.

Anyway FTP actions and the like are probably the most basic of basic approaches.  Push models are needed. Some places will cut editions or want to push individual files.


I put the SFTP publishing in place as a hold out for complex workflow.  I like to think of alfresco as something that will sit behind an enterprise content service interface in our organization. 

In my opinion the push model is to be avoided. Site editions are good for relatively static and immature websites.  When I say immature, I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense. I mean that they are mostly content (rather then behavior), and are still Doc Root centric.

We are looking to do a pull and cache, push only when necessary.

Anyone interested in the ftp code can email or AIM me.

It’s basic: you set up destinations as managed beans and the action maps a bunch of destinations.   If you want an event (like arrives in folder) to publish to many destinations you just make several rules.  The goal was to keep it brain dead since this is not the approach we want to take in the end.

[gavinc]

Hi Craig,

In response to your post a few messages ago….Someone else experienced a problem with configuring the object types drop down, there is some configuration missing, take a look at this thread for more details: http://www.alfresco.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=284&highlight=.

[ctanis]

thank you gavin!

-craig

[rwetherall]

Hi Russ,

We'd be really keen to have a look at the custom actions you've produced.  I appreciate that they may not be a perfect solution, but the simple approach you've taken may be something that other people will find useful. 

If you're happy to contribute then could you send the source directly to me or to info at alfresco dot org. 

Many thanks for you efforts on this,

Roy

[rdanner]

Hi Russ,

We'd be really keen to have a look at the custom actions you've produced.  I appreciate that they may not be a perfect solution, but the simple approach you've taken may be something that other people will find useful. 

If you're happy to contribute then could you send the source directly to me or to info at alfresco dot org. 

Many thanks for you efforts on this,

Roy

It's in the mail.

[cellonet]

Grant

On #2, again it's all planned and will get implemented at some stage (may be someone out there will help).  We prefer taking general purpose approaches to providing functionality, so publishing out from the repository to an external "site" is just part of a general systems integration set of capabilities we'd like to have.  Approaches that we've been talking about include having an FTP rule action that could be triggered by a data event (e.g. life-cycle when implemented) for pushing out the content and a database export (of some kind - probably as XML) that gives the metadata in a simple schema.

We probably aren't far off giving people the basic elements that would allow them to do the final mapping to their live site.

Cheers
Paul.

We have built a Secure FTP action that we can apply with a rule.  I'd be happy to donate this code. I used some library (I can’t recall at the moment), but I can donate this, as long as the license is compatible.

Anyway FTP actions and the like are probably the most basic of basic approaches.  Push models are needed. Some places will cut editions or want to push individual files.


I put the SFTP publishing in place as a hold out for complex workflow.  I like to think of alfresco as something that will sit behind an enterprise content service interface in our organization. 

In my opinion the push model is to be avoided. Site editions are good for relatively static and immature websites.  When I say immature, I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense. I mean that they are mostly content (rather then behavior), and are still Doc Root centric.

We are looking to do a pull and cache, push only when necessary.

Anyone interested in the ftp code can email or AIM me.

It’s basic: you set up destinations as managed beans and the action maps a bunch of destinations.   If you want an event (like arrives in folder) to publish to many destinations you just make several rules.  The goal was to keep it brain dead since this is not the approach we want to take in the end.

Hi,


everyone expienced something similar?

I was looking for a solution that allow to export (as site caching target for Documentum) Alfresco data in a sql server (with filesystem)

[dancri77]

This is a feature I consider it a must if I want to use alfresco in production - which I plan to. Can you give me the sftp code so I can test it? My e mail is dancri77 at yah…com

Many thanks!

[rdanner]

This is a feature I consider it a must if I want to use alfresco in production - which I plan to. Can you give me the sftp code so I can test it? My e mail is dancri77 at yah…com

Many thanks!

Roy

did this ever make it in to a build?

[dancri77]

Managed to find an ugly workaround for publishing in internal LAN, see http://www.alfresco.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2236#2236.