I have Alfresco 3.0b running on a Windows 2003 Server and have configured ISA Server 2006 with a Web listener on port 8081 that forwards from the external domain (ie mydomain.com which resolves to an external IP) to localhost:8080. This works well for accessing alfresco/share over the web, but when I try to access the Alfresco instance within Microsoft Office (File/open/"http://[alfresco]:8081/alfresco"), it just loads the Alfresco webpage within Word and allows me to edit it.
Are there additional ports I should be forwarding from my external IP/NIC to localhost to enable the Sharepoint functionality from within a remote Office client computer etc.?
And now just a random rant. I have found customising Alfresco very hard as the interdependency and enmeshment of parts/services/functionality is crippling at times and hard to decipher. Is there a document that gives me a high level overview of the architecture? I feel overwhelmed by acronyms that make no sense. I.e. what is dependent on what and for what functionality? What's the difference between Catalina and Tomcat? How can I configure a working mail server that has relay permissions? (It defaults to localhost 25). Specifically, how do the WAR's relate to each other? What is it that provides sharepoint functionality from the Alfresco web app? Is it done via WSDL's? Why does login fail if I change the port? Why can't I expose the Tomcat instance directly over an external IP (setting address="external.ip" in the Connector without breaking 15 million other things? (I feel this question is related to the previous somehow). I just don't get any of this! It feels like Alfresco is missing an Administration application that interfaces with the config files and allows for sensible changes to the default configuration ensuring some modicum of sanity. I get the impression that a lot of the configuration options are hidden away deep in the recesses of the directory hierarchy, and without knowing how it all fits together whenever I try to change something I invariably break something.
Despite all of this, when Alfresco works, it is wonderful, and I think it has a very bright future.
So what am I missing here? An understanding of Alfresco at a higher level of abstraction, or an understanding of how Tomcat provisions web apps? It feels like Tomcat/Alfresco is considerably more complicated than a lot of other environments I have experience with.
I found out you have to apply the VTi module with apply_amps.bat in the root directory of the Alfresco installation. Adding this here incase it helps others. My other questions still remain though!
