How to do Bulk import a second time?

[kapil_k]

I did a bulk import once with the sample war (alfresco-sample-website.war)
Now I have modified the sample war with my own customizations (as I would do in a live production scenario to make any changes to site), such as changes to jsps and classes.
I am unable to bulk import again.
It reports an error that the folder is already present (which obviously is)

Please suggest how to synchronize my war application with the already imported one.

Thanks,
Kapil

[edgar]

I have the same issue. Of course you could use the CIFS interface to update these items, but it would be very useful if the Web Client also offered a way to do bulk updates. And come to think of it: bulk exports!

In our case, we want to host Alfresco as a Web CMS on the internet and we do not want to expose the CIFS interface externally.

Another related thing: it takes a long time when you update a Java class file using the Web Client. I assume this is because Alfresco makes a snapshot of the Web Project or something and also has to restart the virtual web app somehow (to be able to reload the class). When you have a number of classes to update this becomes a serious problem. When running a web app in Alfresco I guess it is easier to package class files in a single JAR file.

cheers,

Edgar

[kvc]

Kapil:

Yes, you do currently have to rename any newly-built WAR to re-bulk import.  I will file a feature enhancement request here, though it is unlikely to get into our roadmap in the next 6 months (we've a number of queued up items).

Will keep you posted.

Kevin

[kapil_k]

Kevin,

I would like to use a Java Web App (Tomcat) to access HTML content (which I have created using Alfresco and is available in the content repository).

WCM is unsuitable, due to limitations cited in this thread.
From some other replies, CIFS seems to be an option.

Can you point me to CIFS links / information. I will need the following:
1. Setup the CIFS server
2. sync CIFS repository with Alfresco content repo
3. Tomcat should be able to access the CIFS files and serve the htmls

Thanks in advance.
Kapil

[kvc]

Kapil:


CIFS is not a separate repository, but rather a "window" into the content stored within either an Alfresco space or web project.

We have two mount path for CIFS, one for collaboration spaces and the other for web projects.  Typically, knowledge workers mount Alfresco via CIFS for general DM and collaboration, but do not use the CIFS interface for web content.  They typically use the web client and create content using forms rather than using speciality tools like a DreamWeaver. 

To mount your ECM spaces, you use the standard Alfresco CIFS mount:

\\servermachine_a\alfresco

To mount your WCM web projects, you use an additional Alfresco CIFS mount:

\\servermachine_a\avm

Because any reads/writes you do via CIFS *is* directly reading and writing assets in Alfresco, you do not need to sync anything.  Also, because it literally looks, acts, and feels like a normal mapped network drive, you can readily point any webserver or app server to sit atop it.

Hope that helps.


Kevin

[kvc]

Kapil:


I should also note that if you are just generating static sites using HTML (and potentially SSIs for common components like headers, etc.), you're best off using our new 2.1 file-system deployment services.  This service, to be released with our 2.1.0 Community RC2 release end of this week, allows you to push a snapshot to one or multiple file servers, where you can just serve them off a standard web server like Apache (serving static files from Tomcat is you've no executable pages is much less efficient than just using a standard web server, and the same goes from serving files from our CIFS interface if you can instead just server from a regular FS).

Take a look at the updated Community release when available.  Hope this helps.


Kevin