Hyland Connect

resplin · ‎06-05-2015

The official documentation is at: http://docs.alfresco.com

Introduction

Alfresco provides a content repository that makes it easier for your content authors to produce content using the tools they prefer, and then publish that content to the world.

Alfresco-based web solutions can scale from a single server to a multi-tier architecture involving Alfresco Share as an authoring tier which publishes static content to the filesystem and dynamic content to Alfresco repositories which can be queried by a client facing tier that handles page assembly.

There are a number of common approaches to getting your content from Alfresco onto the Web.

Use Alfresco as the content store behind a CMIS-enabled portal solution such as Drupal or Liferay.
Use an Alfresco Add-on that provides Web Content Management such as Crafter Rivet.
Build your web application layer in Java using Web Quick Start.
Build a custom web application layer using CMIS, the Alfresco API, and custom REST URLs using webscripts.

The rest of this page discusses Web Quick Start as one approach for meeting web use cases with Alfresco.

Overview

Today's websites are becoming more and more complex, with greater amounts of dynamic content, interactivity, personalization and user-generated content. Companies are looking for web infrastructure solutions that are:

Flexible to customize by web application developers
Easy to update by business users, with content tools they already use
Integrated with full business process support and audit capability
Scalable to support large quantities of content and high numbers of users

Alfresco provides a solution that enable developers to quickly build and deliver web applications that can be used by marketing teams to easily create and publish content to the web.

Solution

Alfresco Web Quick Start is a set of website design templates, built on top of the powerful Alfresco Share content management and collaboration framework. With Quick Start, developers can rapidly build customized, engaging, dynamic web applications with powerful content management features without having to start from scratch.

Using standard development tools, developers can quickly deploy the comprehensive content management capabilities of Alfresco to build new and innovative web applications. Developed using the Spring framework with Spring Surf, the Web Quick Start allows developers to easily extend Alfresco to add new features to support the demands of the business users.

Key Features

For Marketing

Alfresco Web Quick Start is built on a unified ECM suite. Features that help content creators edit, review and publish content include:

Collaborative Environment: Allows distributed team members to work together to effectively complete web-based projects
Alfresco Web Editor: In-context editing enables users to make changes to and create new content directly from the editorial website without the need to understand how the content is being managed
Office-to-Web: Transformation tools automatically convert office files into web-ready formats for publishing which removes manual conversion processes
Interface of choice: Users can choose from a range of different interfaces for creating and updating web content, including:
- CIFS: Allowing user to 'mount' Alfresco just like a shared network drive. Users can continue to use existing desktop tools and simply use drag-and-drop to upload new content without the need for downloads or plugins
- Alfresco Share: Using the advanced social collaboration capabilities of Alfresco Share to work with globally distributed virtual teams
- Alfresco Web Editor: Modify and create content directly within the web application without having to understand how the content is stored
- Microsoft Office: Using the Microsoft SharePoint protocol, users can seamlessly upload and modify web content from within standard Office tools
Enterprise Business Process: Support for business processes that control how new content is managed through a review and approval process to ensure the right information is published at the right time
Site Creation: Ability to quickly create new sites, or micro-sites, to support new marketing campaigns or corporate activities

For Developers:

Built on industry standards, and the leading Open Source content management platform, Alfresco Web Quick Start provides features that enable developers to quickly deliver web applications. These include:

Standards Driven: Based on industry standard development tools (Java, Spring, Java Script, Freemarker, XMLT, etc.) allows developers to leverage existing skill sets
Script Support: Light weight scripting environment speeds application development without the need for application restarts. Quickly implement custom RESTful API's or interface with the repository without the need for complex Java.
Dynamic CMIS Runtime: Provides an industry-standard platform that future proofs development investment and removes vendor tie-in
Open Source: Provides a scalable development platform that can be easily extended to meet business needs
Content reuse: Transformation services can re-purpose content for delivery through multiple channels such as the web, smart phones, tablets, etc.

For Architects:

Alfresco Web Quick Start has advantages for architects designing scalable web applications, including:

Multi-tier Deployment: editorial and delivery environments to meet Enterprise security, redundancy and scalability requirements.
Transfer and Deployment Services: Easily publish content between multiple environments using transfer and deployment services.
Flexibility and Scalability: Add more Alfresco as your requirements change. Using repository clustering, flexible deployment and transfer services, architects can define and build web infrastructures that they can scale to meet future business demands
Full CMIS Support: Provides repository interoperability, reduces vendor lock-in and simplifies content migration

Downloading and Installing Web Quick Start

Click for the official documentation on Web Quick Start.

Additional information is available in the Web Quick Start Installation and Configuration guide and Quick Start Developer Guide