Alfresco WCM in an Hour

MichaelFarman

www.alfresco.com

Agenda

● Introduction

● Alfresco's Model for WCM● Production Model● Deployment

● What type of uses are supported?

● User Roles

● Authoring Content

● Previewing Updates

● Reviewing and Approving Updates

● Tracking Updates

● Deployment

● Demonstration

● Further Information

● Q and A

Alfresco WCM

● Add-on Module to Alfresco Content Repository

● All DM and WCM capabilities available within a single repository● Complementary Content and Web Content services

● Community and Enterprise Versions● Community - Free to use

• Limited QA• NO support• Use at your own risk!

● Enterprise - No license fees, annual support subscription• Production Ready• Service Level Agreement• Warranty and Indemnity

● See Alfresco in an Hour in the Content Community for more information on core repository services.

Alfresco’s Model for WCM

● Content Production● Production Model

• Sandboxes• Transparent Layers

● Workflow● Roles● Content Modelling● Versioning● Virtualisation● Filesystem Projection

● Content Delivery● Static v’s Dynamic Runtimes● Alfresco Runtimes● Deployment

Alfresco’s Model for WCM

● Low traffic

● Read / write

● Alfresco focuses on:● Ease of content entry● Content QA (workflow /

approval)● Version control / rollback

● High traffic

● Read mostly

● Alfresco focuses on:● Deployment Flexibility● Technology agnosticism● Performance / scalability

Production Model

Production Model –Transparent Layers

● No changes yet made

Production Model – Transparent Layers

● Alice creates a new page called "products.html"

Production Model – Transparent Layers

● Alice edits "index.html" to add a link to her new page

Production Model –Transparent Layers

● Alice submits her changes (change set) to workflow, they are approved and promoted to staging

Alfresco’s Model for WCM

Deployment In a Nutshell

?

What kind of sites can Alfresco manage?

● Static – HTML, Images● Dynamic - JSP, ASP, Coldfusion, PHP…..

.

Delivery technology

Page compositing

Deployment mechanism

Personalization

Performance

Application developer skill-sets

S tatic

Web servers

S ubmission time

Filesystem

Limited

Ultimate

Freemarker, XS LT, XS LT-FO

Dynamic

Application servers

Request time

Alfresco Runtime

Unlimited

Less than static

Any web technology

● Static or Dynamic or Both

Alfresco Runtimes

Runtime Repository (in production) Can be used:

As the search engine for the web site (applicable for both dynamic and static web sites)

As a runtime content store that can be queried by a dynamic web application.

Web Scripts REST (HTTP) Based –

Technology Independent Data Access API HTML, XML, Text, JSON,

Atom, RSS..... Supports cached results Authentication● Can be used to provide:

• Search• Navigation• Dynamic Page Assembly

A Hybrid Model?

Hybrid – Mix Static and Dynamic

Page Composition Options“Inside Out”

• Each page is dynamic and includes all page components dynamically (regardless of whether those components are static or dynamic)

“Outside In”• Each page is static HTML with static components already

embedded, but dynamic components included via an inclusion mechanism (eg. server side includes)

Note: The tradeoff between these two models is management complexity vs runtime performance.

Deployment –Static

Deployment – Dynamic

Deployment – Hybrid

What types of users are supported?

● Web Designers / Developers ● Support any tool for authoring, development ● Support any number, type of website● Integrated staging, preview, and deployment

● Application Developers● Code versioning, testing, staging

● Content Managers / Web Publishers● XML-based publishing, transformation,

preview

● Content Reviewers● Email-based task notification, management

● Content Contributors● Drag-and-drop Word document● Automatic transformation, publishing to Web

● Content Manager● Content Publisher● Content Contributor● Content Reviewer

Editorial Power

Role Relative User PopulationContent Manager Few

Content Publisher Some

Content Contributor Many

Content Reviewer Implementation Dependent

What types of users are supported?

● WCM Roles

What types of users are supported?

● Content Manager● Build Import content into the

staging sandbox● Invite users to the Web Project● Perform any action in any user

sandbox

● Content Publisher● Create/Edit/Delete Content

from within their own sandbox● Submit to the Staging area

● Content Contributor● Create/Edit content within their

sandbox● Submit content from within

their sandbox to the Staging area

● Content Reviewer● Edit content in their own

sandbox● Submit content from within

their sandbox to the Staging area

● Note: Cannot create new content

● WCM Roles

● Web Forms● XML Schema● XForms● Form Library and Form Configuration● Templates (XSLT, Freemarker, XSL-FO, Custom)● Multi-channel output (renditions)

● Support for wizard-driven content authoring● Enforce rules for content authoring● Enable complex authoring● Enforce rules for content generation

Authoring Content

● Web Forms

Authoring Content

Authoring Content -Web Forms

● Web Forms● Simple Wizard based content

authoring

● Form Definition● XML Schema

• WYS IWYG editor with formatting options, Text area, Checkbox, S lider control, Time picker, Radio buttons, dropdown, Asset picker and more

● Template Processing● 1 – Many Formatting

Templates● XSLT, XSLT-FO and

Freemarker• Multiple output• Generate HTML, Text, PDF,

JSP……

1) Generate XML- content

2) Generate assets- presentation

Authoring Content -Web Forms

Alfresco uses XML Schema to define web content entry forms. For this purpose it uses the Chiba forms engine, an open source implementation of the XForms standard.

Authoring Content -Template Processing

Alfresco provides 3 server-side templating languages: XSLT, XSLT-FO and Freemarker. After a content item (XML file) is created, each template configured for that content type is executed, producing an output file per template.

Typical output formats include HTML, JSP, PDF etc.

Web Forms Are Content Too!

Managed in the repository

Web Forms and their associated output templates are global to an Alfresco installation and must be associated to a Web Project before they can be used within that Web Project.

You can view all configured Web Forms by navigating to:

Company Home > Data Dictionary > Web Forms

Authoring Content -File System Access

● Filesystem Projection● CIFS projection provides:

● Access to all available sandboxes (HEAD)● Access to all available layers (preview, review)● Access to all available snapshots

Contained in special top-level VERSIONS directory

Available as read-only views

● Access to all available file metadataContained in special top-level METADATA directory

Accessed as normal files

Metadata file names, dir structure mimic regular site

Authoring Content -File System Access

● Filesystem Projection

Previewing Updates

● Virtualisation● Isolated preview environment for every user sandbox and the

staging sandbox• No physical servers required• Users only see their changes

● Supports preview of modified content & code (JSP pages, class files, jars)

● Minimizes in-memory footprint

● User Sandbox● Preview, undo, check links for individual updates and sites

● Staging Sandbox● Preview all approved updates● Review snapshots (previous versions)● Revert to previous

Previewing Updates -User Sandbox

Preview All Updates

Preview Individual UpdatesUndo Updates

Reviewing and Approving Updates

● Change Sets and Workflows● Tasks

Contain an entire change setIncludes deleted files and foldersXML and generated output always associated within context of a task

Cannot promote an XML or a generated without promoting the other associated assets

● Review LayersAny change set associated with a task isolated in own review layer within user’s sandboxReviewers see in-context view of user’s changes against current siteUser’s can continue to work in sandbox without breaking the reviewer’s context

● Workflow configuration● Workflows can be configured for each form or for any arbitrary

set of non-form assets● Sample n-reviewer serial and parallel review configurable OOTB

Includes email notification and email-based task management

Reviewing and Approving Updates

● Submission details● Change Set

● Check Links● Link Validation Report

• href, src, includes

● Workflow - Review, Approve and Publish

● Serial/Parallel● Email integration

● Content Launch/Expiry● Date & Time – Auto review ● Change set/individual assets

● List of submitted assets

● Submit Content

Tracking Updates

● Versioning● File versioning● Directory versioning● Snapshoting● Rollback

● Automatic support for site snapshots, rollback to any snapshot● Each submission versions each file & parent directories● Each submission snapshots staging sandbox● Each snapshot available for rollback

Recovers deletions, moves, renames, etc.Allows website to rollback to any point in time

Tracking Updates -Staging Sandbox Snapshots

Site Snapshots- Rollback to any previous version of the site

Deploying UpdatesManual or Automatic

● Deploy Staging to 1 or more:● Remote File Servers● Alfresco runtime servers

● Can also deploy any snapshots

● Monitoring and logging

● Transactional

● Incremental

Demo

Alfresco WCM In Action

Further Information

● WCM Evaluation Guide● Link from http://wiki.alfresco.com

● Content Community● http://www.alfresco.com● AMPs, Documentation, Tutorial, Tech Tips

● Alfresco Wiki● Detailed technical information on configuration, administration and

customisation● http://wiki.alfresco.com

● Alfresco Forums● Community Postings● Alfresco Staff● http://forums.alfresco.com

● Alfresco Forge● Contributions from the community

• E.g. Metadata extractors, transformations …. • http://forge.alfresco.com

Alfresco WCM in an Hour

Q and A

Alfresco WCM in an Hour

MichaelFarman

www.alfresco.com

Thank you for Attending

Alfresco WCM in an Hour

MichaelFarman

www.alfresco.com