Inter-repository push/publishing/rep-li-cation/synchro...

[sacco]

In January, kvc wrote:

Yes, with the GA release we will be added a basic deployment capability to push content from one Alfresco server (used for web development and publishing) to a second Alfresco server (used for content delivery). We also intend to add support for r-e-p-l-i-c-ating to a file server as well for basic statically -generated websites.

and in the Wiki it is said of Release 2.0:

In this release, we will be putting out the production version of the Alfresco Web Content Management system […] The primary focus on this will be in federable (and massively scalable) systems.

Did anything come of this?  If so how can I use it?

Judging by the Wiki, there are some sophisticated facilities in the pipeline:

http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Publish_Subscribe_Content_Notifications

which is great, but I suspect that 70-80% of what most users will need can actually be achieved with very much less sophisticated machinery.

If it's not already available, would it not be worth putting out some minimal facility to deploy a sub-tree to another JCR or to r-e-p-l-i-c-ate/synchronise sub-trees between two JCRs, even with l-i-m-i-t-e-d performance and flexibility?  If nothing else you will see more of what people actually want to do with this kind of capability.

Currently it seems possible only either to r-e-p-l-i-c-ate the whole repository (strictly speaking, I suppose one could r-e-p-l-i-c-ate incoming from a feeder repository, but…), or to export and import (but only for whole spaces or sub-trees, although I suppose one could do sugrey on the exported zip).
Is more possible programmatically?

I can think of a couple of very simple examples of use cases that would be useful to at least two or three large organisations I know of.
Would it be helpful to type these in somewhere?  If so, where?  Here?  The Wiki?

[rivetlogic]

We're getting fine results by using rsync and Alfresco's CIFS interface to deploy/synchronize WCM content from an Alfresco authoring/staging repository to web delivery repository(s) and/or file system(s).

rsync is fast and performs incremental file transfer.  It's also GPL 

–Mike

[kvc]

Sacco:


Our deployment capabilities will be shipping with our upcoming maintanence release, tentatively scheduled for the end of March.  This new capability will allow web developers / content managers to specify one or more IP addresses to deploy to (that are running an Alfresco server), and then transactionally replicate a snapshot to each machine (transaction on a per machine basis; transactionality not guaranteed across machines).   In the Web Project view, users will be able to selectively deploy any snapshot, where deploying an older snapshot will rollback the run-time site.  You will also have the ability to turn-on an auto-deploy feature - particularly useful in an intranet scenario - where any submission to Staging will automatically replicate out to the production environment.

The server component of our deployment services is functionally complete and we are now working on the UI integration.  Please stay tuned for further details.

Kevin

[alosix]

Sacco:


Our deployment capabilities will be shipping with our upcoming maintanence release, tentatively scheduled for the end of March.  This new capability will allow web developers / content managers to specify one or more IP addresses to deploy to (that are running an Alfresco server), and then transactionally replicate a snapshot to each machine (transaction on a per machine basis; transactionality not guaranteed across machines).   In the Web Project view, users will be able to selectively deploy any snapshot, where deploying an older snapshot will rollback the run-time site.  You will also have the ability to turn-on an auto-deploy feature - particularly useful in an intranet scenario - where any submission to Staging will automatically replicate out to the production environment.

The server component of our deployment services is functionally complete and we are now working on the UI integration.  Please stay tuned for further details.

Kevin

Any update on how this is going. I could really use this feature for a project. Its it in SVN enough for me to mess with.

Thanks,
Jason

[kvc]

Jason:

Deployment work should finalize shortly.  We anticipate releasing our 2.0.1 release in the next couple of weeks.

Work on deployment is happening on a maintenance release branch.  This is a branch from which we'll build our 2.0.1 enterprise maintenance release.  The codeline for 2.0.1 once released will be merged into HEAD and be available from our SVN.  HEAD is where 2.1.0 development is occuring, and so you'll be testing deployment alongside upcomiing 2.1.0 features.

We intend to start moving towards a more regular Community build on HEAD (ideally, once a week) so that you can always download and test a pre-built package of new functionality for our next upcoming feature release.  We're not there yet, and so until then, once we merge the released 2.0.1 code into HEAD, you'll have to download and build the source yourself to test deployment.

Alternatively, if you're a paying customer, you can simply download and work with the maintenance release.

Let me know if any further questions.


Kevin

[alosix]

Jason:

Deployment work should finalize shortly.  We anticipate releasing our 2.0.1 release in the next couple of weeks.

Work on deployment is happening on a maintenance release branch.  This is a branch from which we'll build our 2.0.1 enterprise maintenance release.  The codeline for 2.0.1 once released will be merged into HEAD and be available from our SVN.  HEAD is where 2.1.0 development is occuring, and so you'll be testing deployment alongside upcomiing 2.1.0 features.

We intend to start moving towards a more regular Community build on HEAD (ideally, once a week) so that you can always download and test a pre-built package of new functionality for our next upcoming feature release.  We're not there yet, and so until then, once we merge the released 2.0.1 code into HEAD, you'll have to download and build the source yourself to test deployment.

Alternatively, if you're a paying customer, you can simply download and work with the maintenance release.

Let me know if any further questions.


Kevin

Sounds good. I'll look around to see if I can find that branch in SVN, when you get a chance can you post which one it is?

I'll pull it down, build it and begin running it through its paces. It looks like the release date I'm shooting for got moved back a few weeks. If you guys need some extra hands finishing it up I might be able to throw some code over the wall, just not sure my availability for that at this moment.

Thanks,
Jason

[kvc]

Jason:


Actually, that maintanence branch is not mirrored to our public SVN site.  The source won't be available until our 2.0.1 enterprise release is cut, at which time the 2.0.1 source will be merged with HEAD (and our 2.1 ongoing dev) and available via our public SVN.

But, we'd *love* to take you up on your offer (or anyone else's) for testing deployment.  To that end, we will look to cut a build and post to the Alfresco Content Community for download next Monday.  If you've not registered for the Content Community, please do so at http://www.alfresco.com/community/register/.   You can file any issues you find at http://issues.alfresco.com under the WCM project.

Cheers.

Kevin

[alosix]

Sounds good. We got a few weeks of breathing room for the application we're looking to use this for. So things might line up nicely.

I'll go register.

Thanks,
Jason

[alosix]

If I happened to pull down that release and load it, where might one find this functionality?

[edit] found it, didn't have the web app deployed as well as WCM [/edit]

Thanks,
Jason