Alfresco WCM

Really Simple Web Content Management

Ben Haganwww.alfresco.com

Agenda

● Alfresco WCM Overview

● Types of supported users

● Web Forms

● File System Projection

● User Roles

● Workflow

● Sandboxes

● Virtualisation Server

● Static vs Dynamic

● File System Receiver

● Alfresco Server Receiver

● Snapshots

● Demonstration

Alfresco WCM

● Content Production● Production Model

• Sandboxes

• Transparent Layers

● Workflow● Roles● Virtualisation● File system Projection

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

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

● Architects

What types of users are supported?

Designers

Authors

Content Model

Template

Repository

Alfresco WCM

Content Production

Content Authoring - Web Forms

● Web Forms

Content Authoring - Web Forms

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

Content Authoring - Web Forms

Alfresco WCM

Web FormWeb FormContent Type

XML Schema

XSD File

Content Author

Multi Channel Template Rendition

WebMobile Print

Content Authoring - Web Forms

● Content with templates

● Separates content from presentation. Templates can change independent of content.

● Applied “statically” in Alfresco just after the content is authored.

● Pre-baked

Template

+Content

Filesystem Projection

● CIFS Interface

● Webdav

● FTP

● Editorial tool of choice● Dreamweaver● Eclipse● Notepad etc…

● Content Manager

● Content Publisher

● Content Contributor

● Content Reviewer

Editorial Power

Role Relative User Population

Content Manager Few

Content Publisher Some

Content Contributor Many

Content Reviewer Implementation Dependent

Roles

Workflow

● Serial and parallel review configurable OOTB

● Tasks● Task notification – task list● Contain an entire change set

● Review layers – virtualization server● Reviewers see in-context view of user’s changes against current site

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

non-form assets

Sandboxes

Repository

Staging Sandbox

User Sandboxes

● User Sandbox● Preview, undo, check

links for individual updates and sites

● Staging Sandbox● Preview all approved

updates● Review snapshots

(previous versions)● Revert to previous

● Content edited in isolation

● Content must be approved before merging with staging sandbox.

● Preview with virtualized web server.

Sandboxes Cont..

● User sandboxes

Sandboxes – under the covers..

● A user sandbox acts like a “sheet of glass” sitting on top of the staging sandbox.

● Until modified, any object (file or folder) viewed in a user sandbox is actually seen directly in the staging sandbox, as if through glass.

● When modified, the object is copied into the user sandbox and the modifications saved there. The original version remains unchanged in the staging sandbox.

● Upon successful completion of workflow, the modified version of the object is promoted into the staging sandbox, replacing the version that was previously there.

Virtualization

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

● Users only see their changes

● No physical servers required

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

● Minimizes in-memory footprint

Virtualization Cont..

● How is it used?

● Preview sandbox

● Preview a single content asset

Alfresco WCM

Content Delivery

Approve and deploy…

● Forms-based XML capture

● Email-based production workflow

● In-context testing

● Whole website versioning

● Code and content development

● Parallel branching and merging

● Static or dynamic deployment to one or more servers

● Dependency management and automated updates

AuthoringSandbox

PreviewSandbox

StagingSandbox

Deployment

ChangeSets

ChangeSets

Static or Dynamic?

The single most significant decision when planning a web content management solution is whether the front end web site will be static or dynamic. This decision impacts virtually everything else in the implementation:.

Delivery technology

Page compositing

Deployment mechanism

Personalization

Performance

Application developer skill-sets

Static

Web servers

Submission time

Filesystem (FSR)

Limited

Ultimate

Freemarker, XSLT, XSLT-FO

Dynamic

Application servers

Request time

Alfresco Runtime (ASR)

Unlimited

Less than static

Any web technology

Delivery Environment

● Intelligent File System Receiver (FSR)● Delivering static content e.g. via Apache

● Dynamic Website – Alfresco Server Receiver (ASR)● Search● User generated content

Firewall

FSROr

ASR

Deploy

File System Receiver (FSR)

● Standalone application installed on delivery server(s)

● Allows files to be deployed to the remote machine using the in-built deployment functionality

● Much like a file copy

Alfresco Server Receiver (ASR)

● Alfresco repository installed in the production web environment

● Why use an ASR?● 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.● Any other dynamic process – personalization, User

Generated Content etc

A Hybrid Model?

● A third option exists that straddles the fence between static and dynamic.

● In this model you build the front end web site to support the dynamic model, but leverage the static model wherever possible

● eg. pre-generating the HTML for page components that rarely vary between pages

Hybrid – FSR and ASR

● Improves performance by distributing content to different servers or CDNs (Akamai)

Internal AuthoringEnvironment

External Facing Site

Content (Alfresco Runtime or Static)

Images (Static)

Multimedia (Static)

Deployment

● Manual or Automatic

● Deploy Staging to 1 or more:● File System Receivers (FSR)● Alfresco Server Receivers (ASR)

● Can also deploy any snapshots

● Monitoring and logging

● Transactional

● Incremental

Deployment Cont…

● Deployment is initiated from the Recent Snapshots list in the staging sandbox:

● Note: This option is not available unless deployment targets have been configured for the web project

Deployment Cont…

● Select which target(s) to deploy a snapshot to:

Tracking Updates

● Snapshots● Rollback● Deploy

● Each submission versions each file & parent directories

● Each submission snapshots staging sandbox

● Recovers deletions, moves, renames, etc.

● Allows website to rollback to any point in time

Alfresco WCM

Demonstration

Really Simple Web Content Management

Ben Haganwww.alfresco.com

Thank You…

Call To Action

● Think your Web Content Management can take our Web Content Management?

● Take the WCM Challenge! (http://tinyurl.com/5zftxn)● Try Alfresco WCM (http://tinyurl.com/6pxdfl)

● View Pre-recorded WCM webinars:● Activision.com: WCM of the Year (http://tinyurl.com/57cart)● High Scalability with Alfresco WCM (http://tinyurl.com/5zo2re)

● Nominate Alfresco for the Packt CMS Awards● Help us win the Packt award for Open Source CMS of the Year!● http://tinyurl.com/68og3p