Alfresco's WCM model is built around the notion of providing a development, staging, and test environment for any custom web app you build (this can be a simply web app using JSP and not relying on the Alfresco web client / JSF / Spring).
Alfresco's WCM module provides a set of repository and web clilent enhancements. From the repository, we provide essential source code management for your custom-built website / web app - support for sandboxed development, change sets, file and directory versioning (including snapshotting and rollback). In addition, we provide virtualization services - the ability to test and preview your custom web app at any stage in development - so that you can test your application code and ensure your site is functioning prior to check-in.
So, what you are doing is exactly why we designed our WCM module the way we did: we are encouraging people to build custom dynamic website that leverage Alfresco content management services. The Alfresco web client itself is not meant to be used as part of your run-time website - it is meant only for your developers and contributors to build, maintain, and utlimately deploy your site to your own run-time environment.
I encourage you to take a look at our WCM Preview release, and again evaluate our upcoming BETA this December. I think you'll find that this system will make the development of your Alfresco-powered custom site much easier and more manageable.
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you are saying, but I'm struggling with the notion of Alfresco being a development environment for custom web applications - I've traditionally used JBuilder or Eclipse for building Java/JSP web apps. I'm not sure how I'd go about developing a web app containing JSPs, Java classes, xml files etc. using Alfreco's WCM. It seems I'd be losing all the IDE features that make development easier.
The WCM tutorial explains how to import an existing web app and supplies a sample web app - how was this sample app developed? Was it in Alfresco or an external IDE?
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you are saying, but I'm struggling with the notion of Alfresco being a development environment for custom web applications - I've traditionally used JBuilder or Eclipse for building Java/JSP web apps. I'm not sure how I'd go about developing a web app containing JSPs, Java classes, xml files etc. using Alfreco's WCM. It seems I'd be losing all the IDE features that make development easier.
The WCM tutorial explains how to import an existing web app and supplies a sample web app - how was this sample app developed? Was it in Alfresco or an external IDE?
Thanks, Steve
Steve: Actually, we want and need you to leverage your favorite IDE. Our final release will include support for accessing your sandbox (or any snapshot in a read-only manner, for that matter) via our CIFs interface. This means that you can natively use your favorite IDE to read and write files directly to your sandbox, while tracking changes in your Modified Items list, previewing changes via the virtualization server, checking-in, workflowing, snapshotting, and deploying entire change sets to your run-time environment.
Eclipse, JBuilder, and simpler tools like DreamWeaver all supported. Don't change your tools! Just get your entire site - code and content - under management.
Also, should you choose not to directly manage your code in Alfresco (because you already have an SCM repository and are unable to change at this time), you should still leverage the CIFs interface to output known good builds to your sandbox and check them into Staging. This way, your content contributors are consistently testing their data against the latest and greatest version of your web app. And, because the code is also stored in Alfresco, your snapshots and deployment represent the entire site, which is important for audit trails, rollback, and recovery.
Steve: Actually, we want and need you to leverage your favorite IDE. Our final release will include support for accessing your sandbox (or any snapshot in a read-only manner, for that matter) via our CIFs interface.
Kevin
Thanks Kevin - this is very interesting, someting I hadn't got from my reading so far. Are there or will there be sample code that would demo this setup?
Thanks Kevin - this is very interesting, someting I hadn't got from my reading so far. Are there or will there be sample code that would demo this setup?
Thanks, Steve
Steve: We'll include a sample with an updated tutorial with our BETA / GA release. We plan on being code complete next Friday (12/22) and anticipate BETA shortly thereafter after a period of QA.
