Is the company crippling the open source version on purpose?

[oktay]

I have been trying to install and configure 5.0d community from the zip files on a linux server for many hours now. That package has errors that will prevent it from running without various changes. Is no QC work done on the community packages? How about documentation? Wiki pages have a notice on top that claims that the contents are obsolete and refer people to docs.alfresco.com but this documentation is a joke. It does brain dead things like giving contents that should go into configuration files without telling you what that configuration file is called or where it's supposed to go. Many config samples that used to be present are not in the package. Some are nowhere to be found now. This software used to come with ldap examples, versioning configuration examples etc. WHere are those files now? Another problem with the zip package is that it's missing various directories. The install instructions do not even mention that you have to move the files in that package to where you put the repository. It only refers to moving the war files. The instructions say you have to run a script to configure the solr keystore without explaining why or how. The script that is included to actually perform this task is so wildly misconfigured that I had to run it at least 20 times, fixing something at each step. I still have no idea why I was supposed to run it or why solr still doesn't work. This has really been frustrating. Perhaps I should have run the binary installer but a system can only have so many separate instances of tomcat. By the way, simple things like clicking a cross (x) to remove a dashlet (assistance panel) break the application. This has been very very disappointing so far. I have installed and configured (though never really used) many previous versions of Alfresco over the years but have never encountered such an unfinished product along with documentation that is grossly incomplete. WHat is going on?

Oktay

[eswbitto]

The Community Edition and the Enterprise edition are the exact same code. The only difference you are getting with the Enterprise edition is management tools and tech support.

I think the errors you are getting are the PEBCAK errors. Check the forums on how to fix this issue.

[oktay]

I am in no mood for jokes, but thanks for completely discounting my comments anyway.

[resplin]

I'm sorry that you are having a hard time. A few notes:
* The wiki gets very little attention, and has grown largely out of date. The content is still available, but I added a notice about the documentation being the correct source of information. I detailed my reasoning here:
   http://www.xtreamlab.net/pipermail/ootb-hive/2015-May/000557.html
* Most feedback we get on the documentation is very hard to drive toward a meaningful change. It is better to provide specific feedback through the form at the bottom of each topic in the documentation. We hope you take the time to do so.
* I blogged about the change in configuration files here:
  http://richard.esplins.org/siwi/2014/11/03/important-changes-alfresco-50b/
* Alfresco leadership explained their approach to Community Edition a few times in the past year:
    http://blogs.alfresco.com/wp/strong-open-source-product/
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA0A65NJ7Ic&list=PL_CLaJKJjQLna7KdiQQWQTiUrZ88NsKfl
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylCbpyJOkLY&list=PLyJdWuUHM3iiSXz6ijJVFQKRhbbnl_YPI&index=2
* Community Edition 5.0.d is the most heavily tested version of Community Edition we have produced. eswbitto is correct that Enterprise Edition comes from the same code base. No product is perfect, but we have had a lot of positive feedback about it over the last few months and no reports of major problems.

Good luck.

[eswbitto]

No actually I understand your comments. You create a rant in the form of a wall of text and it doesn't really seem like your asking for help with anything. More of this is how you feel and think and you want people to know about it.

What you should be doing is using the bin file and installing alfresco that way. If you are worried about several instances of tomcat running on one server than either put alfresco on a dedicated server (which you should really do to be honest) or just change the tomcat ports being used so you don't have issues.

…..and I wasn't joking. I knew what was causing your issue.

[oktay]

ESWBitto you do not know me or my capabilities. What I have posted is objective observations. You cannot refute any of them yet you know that the issue is my lack of skills? If it's even the same code as enterprise then why am I supposed to use the bin installer? Something doesn't make sense here. Anyway, I will ignore your comments since they are as useful to me as it stands as my "wall of text" is to you. Let's just ignore each other.

Resplin, thank you for your response. At least now I know that the issues I am having are not intentional or for lack of respect for the community version. I will use the comments on the documentation site. It might at least help others even though it might not change the documentation right away.

[mrogers]

Saying things like "That package has errors that will prevent it from running without various changes."  Without more details means we are unable to understand your problem or help further.

[oktay]

As long as we are quoting from my post.

"Another problem with the zip package is that it's missing various directories. "

"the instructions say you have to run a script to configure the solr keystore without explaining why or how. The script that is included to actually perform this task is so wildly misconfigured that I had to run it at least 20 times, fixing something at each step. "

"By the way, simple things like clicking a cross (x) to remove a dashlet (assistance panel) break the application"

I would be MORE THAN happy to provide more details. So far nobody seemed to be interested in it though. I admit that in my frustration I must have come out stronger than necessary but it should not detract from the contents of what I was saying. Unless I am stupid and have no idea what I am doing anybody who downloads and tries to use the zip package will encounter the same exact problems. This is something I could have helped with when the issues were fresh in my head and still can to some extent.

[mrogers]

Most users will not use the zip package.   It is there for unusual and custom installs.

I've downloaded and looked through the ZIP file and I don't see anything obviously missing.  

I don't see any "instructions" within the ZIP file itself. There are links to the public wiki which I'll take a look at next,  but I agree that the last time I looked at the solr config docs It was hard going.