Have you really removed security from the opensource version

[jocsch]

Oh, I am the first one to post in this forum, nice 😉
Do you really have removed security from the opensource version of the repository? Or do you only removed the administration mask?
I know you must earn money with this product and I
always supposed that there are some limitations to come.

But security is a must-have in nearly all areas where a repository is needed.
From the beginning on, when I read first about alfresco, I thought about using it as a repository in an opensource project. But without security features there is really no way to use it there. I think I would then go for the jackrabbit repository. But it is really a pitty. Hey, I don't need clustering or a web-UI or the content transformation thingy, but security is really basic.

my 2cents,
markus

[janiner]

In my opinion, the free version needs to be usable by two audiences - those who want to check out the product before committing to pay for it, and those who cannot afford to pay (non-profits are a good example).  Of course there will be plenty who will use it who could pay and will not, but that's a marketing expense;  the more people using the free version the more exposure it's name will get and the more paid users it will attract.  As I'm sure you know, big companies tend to be hesitant to use software no-one has ever heard of, so the more buzz you can generate the better.

Therefore, in order to provide something of basic usefullness to those folks, a decent permissions system is a must.  It doesn't have to support LDAP or anything fancy/corporate, but it does need to allow them to use the product's basic CM capabilities in a real world environment with real users and real security needs.

If the product does not have that, then it is basically a toy, unsuitable for production use, and might lead the cynical among us to think that the only reason it is "open source" is to jump on the bandwagon and get some extra press.  That might give you some short-term visibility, but building a community of folks who actualy use the product is IMHO the only way to keep it going long-term and become a name that CTOs recognize and will support.

[andy8080]

I have to agree with other posters - the lack of security is a problem.

Alfresco is promoted as an "Open Source Enterprise Content Management Solution", but this simply isnt true. Without the basic security implementation, I could not even recomend it for a small business, let alone an "enterprise".

Yes the "Professional" and "Enterprise" versions have this - but they are not Open Source.

While I respect what Alfresco has done - it's a great step forward (and very nicely built), I think the advertising/promotion is misleading - please dont call something Open Source *and* Enterprise ready when it clearly is not.

[rdanner]

The open permission service currently enforces nothing. What the open version should be and its compatibility with other permission services (including external systems for storing ACLs, as well as our own) is under active discussion

This is pretty well covered as a sore spot.  Any other issues or things that folks consider to be basic functionality that is missing to the point where the product is rendered a toy?

[janiner]

This is pretty well covered as a sore spot.  Any other issues or things that folks consider to be basic functionality that is missing to the point where the product is rendered a toy?

Nothing is jumping out at me in the current version (though I haven't done much with it yet) but I have looked at the Roadmap and the "hot backup" tools look to me like another thing that should be included in all versions.

Keeping in mind that non-profit user I mentioned earlier, I believe that the free version should include all the pieces that user would need.  It's reasonable to charge for something like LDAP because, generally speaking, an organization large enough to need it is large enough to pay for it.  But hot backups are about reducing downtime and that can be critical to users of any size.

[rdanner]

This is pretty well covered as a sore spot.  Any other issues or things that folks consider to be basic functionality that is missing to the point where the product is rendered a toy?

Nothing is jumping out at me in the current version (though I haven't done much with it yet) but I have looked at the Roadmap and the "hot backup" tools look to me like another thing that should be included in all versions.

Keeping in mind that non-profit user I mentioned earlier, I believe that the free version should include all the pieces that user would need.  It's reasonable to charge for something like LDAP because, generally speaking, an organization large enough to need it is large enough to pay for it.  But hot backups are about reducing downtime and that can be critical to users of any size.

What about your wish list?  What would the perfect CMS have that you dont see out there or that you don't see in Alfresco?  Regardless of licensing.

[janiner]

What about your wish list?  What would the perfect CMS have that you dont see out there or that you don't see in Alfresco?  Regardless of licensing.

I really haven't spent enough time evaluating it to be sure.  More documentation is always helpful, of course.

The current templating guide says "Currently we have not exposed the templating features much in the most recent version of the web-client (RC1b). The potential for the future is huge, templates could be used to generate whole web-sites or customise existing views and spaces etc."

I would like to know more about what is coming, as this is an important area for me, and if any of it will be restricted to the pay versions, but there is no mention of templating in the Roadmap (or I missed it).

Edited to add:

Another thing that would be very helpful is a section on the Wiki with links to learning resources.  Maybe one section for "here's what you need to read and understand in order to be a power Alfresco user" and another for what you need to know to be an effective developer.  I am coming at this from a completely non-Java background and at times I start to get overwhelmed by all the things I don't know.  Not Java itself, that is relatively easy to read, but all of the other products and pieces that are incorporated into Alfresco. 

For example, in order to get the most out of the Template Guide I need to know at least a little about JSF, JSP and FreeMarker, plus I need to know a lot more about how objects are handled in Alfresco than I currently do.  

I don't expect anyone to teach me this stuff, but an assemblage of links recommended by those who are ahead of me on the learning curve would help a lot, and I expect I'm not the only one who would benefit from this.  Extra credit given if the links are listed in the order in which it would be best to read them, since many times one piece of knowledge builds on another, but that's not obvious until you're deep into it.

[kevinr]

The current templating guide says "Currently we have not exposed the templating features much in the most recent version of the web-client (RC1b). The potential for the future is huge, templates could be used to generate whole web-sites or customise existing views and spaces etc."

I would like to know more about what is coming, as this is an important area for me, and if any of it will be restricted to the pay versions, but there is no mention of templating in the Roadmap (or I missed it).

The templating features in 1.0 are currently exposed as a UI Component, and therefore can only really be seen in a limited light in the current web-client. This week I have just finished moving the templating system down into the Repository as a service. This means templating can now be accessed through the Alfresco API like any other public service. This opens it up to be used in features such as Actions, Rules and as part of custom applications etc. The new TemplateService will be available in the nightly-build from tonight (we are restarting nightly-build source drops from this evening I believe). In the future we also intend to expose templating more in the web-client, building pages such as "dashboards" or similar that are basically constructed from customisable templates.

Templates features will never be part of the "pay" version! We will only ever more features "down" from pay to Open Source - never the other way around

Cheers,

Kevin

[gavinc]

If you were interested in the nightly build to try out the TemplateService Kevin mentions it's now available here: http://www.alfresco.org/source_download_nightly.php

[steve]

Hi,

V1.1 is now out that includes Permissions in the Open Source version.

Enjoy,

Steve