CMS explained

[dash161]

Am I correct in understanding that Alfresco 2.0 is a content management system (CMS), as opposed to a document management system as in previous versions?

In what way is it a content management system?

Can alfresco 2.0 generate web pages directly, if yes how?

Any examples of how the CMS works would be appreciated.

Dash.

[flin]

I don't use Alfresco for CMS (yet), but as far as I know alfresco now has a WYSIWYG editor, where you can draw 'pages' to display them latter at your site.

[dnind]

Web Content Management functionality has been added in the version 2 release (this is a separate "module" that needs to be downloaded and installed). 

All the previous functionality is available by default (including document management), with improvements such as federated search, OpenSearch support, tree navigator and new web client look and feel.  In addition there is a records management module that is also available using the new module management package features.

See http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Release_2.0 for further information on key new features in version 2.

I have not used or investigated in any detail the web content management functionality, so can't help you with your questions about that.

[jcox]

Dash,

Regarding the WCM features in Alfresco 2.0:

In what way is it a content management system?

It's now possible to create websites via the GUI and browse around
in them as if they were deployed.   This is made possible by the new
virtualization server we ship with the product.  We also include features
that let you auto-generate web forms that collect data from users,
persist it as XML, and render it via customizable templates (e.g.:  you can
write your own xslt and/or freemarker  templates to output arbitrary
html based on the XML you collected).

Can alfresco 2.0 generate web pages directly, if yes how?

You can auto-generate output via templates, and preserve the raw
structured XML data separately;  this has a number of advantages, such
as the ability to re-skin your data (or use it in other contexts).  

If by "directly" you mean  "can you just edit/upload html files?"
the answer is yes.   You can do that via the web-based GUI
and/or create a CIFS mount and work on your files as if they
were in a normal file system  (using whatever custom tools you like).

We have built-in suport for creating virtualized webapps and/or static
websites … this means you can virtualize JSPs, servlets, filters… and so
on. It's quite extensive, and richly integrated with the core Alfresco
webapp's GUI.   Later on, we'll do something similar for
Apache 2  (which will open the door for php-based sites), but if you
really want to see the contents of a PHP-based site virtualized today
you can still do that via the CIFS projection  (though you wont' have
the same GUI support that the Alfresco webapp gives you for
viewing sites via the virtualization server).


  Cheers,
  - Jon