This chapter introduces the basic concepts of Alfresco Web Content Management from a user's perspective. It demonstrates how to set up and configure the Alfresco Explorer for managing a web project and showcases a sample web publishing scenario.
At the end of this module, you will be able to:
- Create a web project in Alfresco
- Bulk load an existing website content into a web project
- Configure the Virtualization Server to enable the previewing of content
- Publish the content from User Sandbox to Staging Sandbox after an approval process
We assume you are familiar with Alfresco Explorer, which is a web-based user interface to the Alfresco WCM. Before beginning the tutorial, you must ensure that:
- The Alfresco ECM and WCM applications are installed.
- The Alfresco Web Server is running.
- The Alfresco Virtualization Server is running.
Using any web browser, you can connect to the Alfresco Explorer application. You will be able to manage users, security, content, business rules, and everything related to the enterprise content stored in Alfresco through the web client.
Once you log in, you will notice My Alfresco Dashboard as the home page.
The My Alfresco Dashboard is a configurable area where you can select from a list of preconfigured dashlets and components to construct your own page.
To start configuring your dashboard, click on the Configure icon given in My Alfresco Dashboard as shown in the following screenshot. The Configure Dashboard Wizard will open up allowing you to select the dashboard layout and dashlets:
When configuring the dashboard, each component you select is displayed as a pane on the dashboard. The available components are as follows:
|
Component |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Getting Started |
This displays helpful information for getting started, including links to an Alfresco demonstration, a feature tour, and the Alfresco online help system. Descriptions of some common tasks you may want to perform in Alfresco are also included. |
|
My Tasks To Do |
Here all incomplete tasks assigned to you are listed. In this pane, you can manage and reassign your tasks. |
|
All Active Tasks |
The All Active Tasks component displays all active tasks—those assigned to us and those assigned to other users. In this pane you manage and reassign tasks. |
|
My Pooled Tasks |
All pooled tasks relevant to us are displayed here. These will be pooled tasks assigned directly to us or tasks assigned to a group that you belong to. In this pane you can manage and reassign your tasks. |
|
My Completed Tasks |
The My Completed Tasks pane displays all tasks that you have completed. In this pane you can view and cancel workflows related to a completed task. |
|
OpenSearch |
This component displays the OpenSearch pane on your dashboard, which provides the ability to search across multiple repositories. This is the same search pane that is displayed in the sidebar. |
|
My Document List |
The My Document List component displays the documents within your home space. In this pane you can view the document details, preview the document, and perform various actions on the content item without leaving the dashboard, including Check Out, Check In, Update, Delete, Edit Details, and Download. Use the document type filter in this pane to specify the information to display: All Items, Word Documents, HTML Documents, PDF Documents, or Recently Modified. |
|
My Spaces List |
This displays the current repository. In this pane you can navigate the repository from the dashboard and perform various actions, including creating spaces, uploading content, and viewing content items. Use the filter in this pane to specify the type of information to display: All Items, Spaces, Documents, My Items, or Recently Modified. |
|
My Tasks |
Displays all incomplete tasks assigned to you. In this pane you can filter the tasks by due date (Due Today, Next 7 days, No due date, Overdue) and manage the tasks. This component is similar to the My Tasks To Do component but with a different user interface. |
|
My Web Forms |
This displays the web projects you have been invited to and the web forms associated with each project. The My Web Forms pane enables you to preview a web project, create web content from a web form, and display the Sandbox view for a project—all from the dashboard. |
|
My Web Files |
All the web projects you have been invited to and the Modified Items list from your sandbox for each project are listed here. This pane enables us to edit and preview individual content items, preview a web project, and display the Sandbox view for a project—all from the dashboard. |
Web projects are created in the Company Home | Web Projects space. This space is automatically created if either WCM was included with the base install of Alfresco or if WCM is installed separately.
Before you delve into the details of web projects, it is worthwhile to understand the concept of sandboxes.
- Each user in a web project is provided their own sandbox.
- Each web project has a Staging Sandbox. All user changes, such as uploading a file in the system, are stored in their sandbox until they are submitted to the Staging Sandbox.
- The User Sandbox also maps all files in the Staging Sandbox, which have not been modified by the current user, providing a complete view of the web project for that specific user with their current changes.
- The Staging Sandbox has all files submitted by each user, where the current view is the most recently submitted version of a specific file.
The following diagram illustrates what user Mark sees with no modified file in his sandbox. Note how he sees the Staging Sandbox's version of Index.html:
Mark creates or uploads a new products page. He will see the new Products.html file and the staging's version of the Index.html file.
Now Mark modifies the Index.html file to link to the Products.html file. This creates a new version of the Index.html file in his sandbox. He no longer sees the current Staging Sandbox's version of the file as illustrated in the following diagram:
Mark is satisfied with his changes and submits them through workflow and the two files are promoted to staging. His versions of the Index.html and Products.html files become the Staging Sandbox's current versions as shown in the next diagram:
The following screenshot shows the WCM interface for the user's sandbox at the bottom and the Staging Sandbox at the top:
Using this interface users can:
- Browse their sandbox and the Staging Sandbox web project hierarchy using the appropriate Browse Website action.
- Preview the website based on the state of their sandbox or the Staging Sandbox using the appropriate Preview Website action.
- Submit all modified files from their sandbox to a workflow using the Submit All action.
- Roll back all modified files in their sandbox using the Undo All action.
- Refresh their sandbox or the Staging Sandbox using the appropriate Refresh action. This is useful to view a new file submitted in another fashion (CIFS) in the user's sandbox, or new submission in the Staging Sandbox from other users.
Sandboxes are backed by the Advanced Versioning Manager (AVM). The AVM is an advanced repository implementation designed to support the version control requirements of large websites and web applications. It is a completely different implementation from the stores used by Alfresco Document and Records Management. Think of the AVM as a virtual time machine. For example, if you want to look at how a particular file appeared one month ago, you will be able to see it against the backdrop of how everything else looked one month ago. The state of the entire repository will be recorded in an efficient manner at each moment in its transaction history. The AVM provides the following features, including some found in other software tools like Subversion and TeamSite:
- Directories, renames, and file metadata will be versioned
- Every moment in transaction history is available immediately as a read-only filesystem
- All directories are first-class versioned objects
- Branching will be a constant-time operation
- Choice of database backends (for example, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL)
- Access through CIFS
Alfresco AVM is an advanced store implementation designed to support the version control requirements of managing large websites and web applications. The AVM consists of a forest of content stores that can be used to manage the development and staging of web content and associated source code. Each AVM store is loosely modeled on Subversion, providing source code control for websites. Each AVM store supports an extended versioning model, including:
- File-level version control
- File-level branching
- Directory-level version control
- Directory-level branching
- Store-level version control (snapshots)
- Store-level branching
In addition to these extended versioning operations, the AVM also supports the following capabilities:
- Between two file versions on the same branch within a single store
- Between two file versions on different branches within the same store
- Between two file versions between any two stores
- Between two directory versions on the same branch within a single store
- Between two directory versions on different branches within the same store
- Between two directory versions between any two stores
- Between two versions of any single store
- Between any two stores
AVM's support for file, directory, and store comparison provides the basis for synchronization operations, for example, to synchronize any two branched versions of a source tree within an AVM store or maintained in separate AVM stores.