Alfresco 4 Enterprise Content Management Implementation by Shariff, Munwar -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Alfresco 4 Enterprise Content Management Implementation

Table of Contents Alfresco 4 Enterprise Content Management Implementation Credits About the Authors About the Reviewers www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

Why Subscribe? Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers What you need for this book Who this book is for Conventions Reader feedback Customer support

Downloading the example code Errata Piracy Questions

1. Introduction to Alfresco

Overview of Alfresco

Leveraging the benefits of open source State-of-the-art content repository Scalable architecture Open standards-based underlying components Globalization support Security and access control Essential library services Business process automation Enterprise integrations

Alfresco Enterprise 4 – an overview

Alfresco Share Alfresco Repository Public API Alfresco CMIS implementation Microsoft SharePoint Protocol support Social content publishing Solr search Activiti workflow for Business Process Management (BPM) iPad and Android usability improvements

Alfresco products

Alfresco Enterprise On-Premise Alfresco in the cloud Alfresco Mobile Alfresco Workdesk

How you can benefit from Alfresco

Using Alfresco for document management Using Alfresco for records management Using Alfresco for collaboration management Using Alfresco for enterprise content search Applications of Alfresco

How does the future look with Alfresco?

Better support options Free upgrades

Implementing the example solution using Alfresco Where do you get more information? Summary

2. Installing Alfresco

Installing Alfresco

Out of the box installation architecture

Client applications layer Repository services layer Data storage layer Components of Alfresco applications How can you access the application

Which installation option is suitable for you

Enterprise and Community editions Operating systems – Windows, Linux, UNIX, and MacOS Databases – MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server, and PostgreSQL Application servers – Tomcat and JBoss Portals (optional) – JBoss Portal and Liferay Choosing the suitable software for your installation

Installing on Microsoft Windows

Full installation Installing the Alfresco bundle on Tomcat

Installing Java SE Developer Kit Installing Alfresco bundled on Tomcat

Installation of other Alfresco components

Installing SharePoint protocol support Installing the Alfresco license file Installing and configuring the MySQL database Installing OpenOffice Installing Flash Player Installing SWFTools

Installation folder structure Starting and stopping Alfresco as a console application Configuring Alfresco as a Windows service Installing TinyMCE language packs

Installing on Linux Installing extensions with the AMP installation script

Using the Module Management Tool with a script Using the Module Management Tool from the command prompt

Summary

3. Getting Started with Alfresco

Introduction to Alfresco Explorer

Logging in to Alfresco as an administrator Screen layout

Toolbar Navigator

Navigator tree view Shelf OpenSearch Categories logical view

Breadcrumbs Header Detail

Administration Console

Users and groups management Category management Data management System information

Getting started with content creation

Creating Space Creating content Creating a link to content

My Alfresco dashboards

Choosing My Alfresco Dashboard as start location Configuring a personal dashboard using wizard

Step one – selecting layout Step two – selecting components

Starting with basic configuration

Extending Alfresco configuration

Alfresco ConfigRoot folder Alfresco extension folder Configuration approach Packaging and deploying Java extensions

Installing the enterprise license file Changing the default administrator password Configuring the content store Configuring logfiles Configuring default logos Customizing the look and feel using CSS

Configuring multilanguage support

Configuring subsystems

Extending any subsystem Configuring the audit subsystem

Enable audit Configure Audit Filters View audit trail

Configuring the email subsystem

Outbound_SMTP email subsystem Inbound_SMTP email subsystem

Configuring IMAP

Configuring the FileServers subsystem

Configuring CIFS

Configuring File System Transfer Receiver Setting up a multi-tenant environment

Enabling multi-tenancy

High availability

Creating a blueprint for your application

Enterprise intranet as a theme Features you are going to implement

Summary

4. Implementing Membership and Security

Alfresco membership and security model

Users and groups Permissions and roles Authentication How is security imposed in Alfresco?

Managing system users

Creating new users Searching for existing users in Alfresco Explorer Modifying user details Deleting a user

Individual user access

New user login and my homepage Updating the personal details and password

Managing user groups

Creating groups and subgroups Adding users to a group Removing users from a group

Extending security permissions and roles

Default permissions Default roles Creating a custom role

Securing your spaces

User roles on a space Inviting users to your space Defining and securing your spaces

Securing your content

User roles for content Inviting users to your content

Choosing a right security model for you

Using the Alfresco out-of-the-box membership system Authentication Subsystem

Authentication chain

Configuring LDAP for Centralized Identity Management

LDAP configuration with Active Directory LDAP synchronization

Configuring NTLM for single sign-on

SSO with Active Directory

Migrate existing users to Alfresco

Understanding of user and group structure in Alfresco Using command-line scripts to bulk upload users Bootstrapping the Alfresco repository with predefined user data

Summary

5. Implementing Document Management

Managing spaces

Space is a smart folder Importance of space hierarchy Editing a space

Editing space properties Deleting space and its contents Moving or copying space by using the clipboard Creating a shortcut to a space for quick access

Choosing a default view for your space Sample space structure for a marketing project

Managing content

Creating content

Creating text documents – HTML, text, and XML Uploading binary files – Word, PDF, Flash, Image, and Media

Editing content

Online editing of HTML, text, and XML Offline editing of files Uploading updated content Content actions Deleting content Moving or copying content using the clipboard Creating a shortcut to the content for quick access

Managing content properties

What is Content Metadata? Metadata extractors Editing metadata Adding additional properties

Library services

Versioning

Auto Versioning

Check In and Check Out

Checking out documents Checking in the working copy Undo Check Out to unlock a document

Categorizing content

Managing categories Adding categories to content Searching content by category

Managing multilingual content

Versions of multilingual content Deleting multilingual content

Using network drives to manage content

CIFS

Mapping the drive

FTP WebDAV

Recovering deleted content Data Dictionary and space templates

The Data Dictionary space Space templates for re-usable space structure

Creating new space template for re-use Using an existing space template to create a new space

Discussions on spaces and documents

Discussion forums for collaboration

Forum space Creating discussion forums in the forum space Creating topics in the forum Replying to topics Departmental forums and security

Defining forums for groups within a department Inter-department collaboration using spaces

Managing space users Space collaboration using e-mails Starting a discussion on a specific space

Content collaboration

Owner invites individuals to collaborate on content

RSS syndication

Using RSS feeds RSS Templates

Migrating existing content into Alfresco

Drag-and-drop content to the network drive Using web services to migrate content Bulk import tools

Summary

6. Implementing Business Rules

Using business rules on spaces

Organizing documents automatically Running rules in the background Dynamically adding properties to a document Automatic versioning of documents Sending notifications to specific people Chaining all of the business rules

Built-in business rules

How these business rules work? How the conditions are checked? What actions are executed? When are these rules triggered?

Applying actions to individual content

Removing an aspect from a content

Handling content transformations

Transforming a Word document to PDF Resizing and transforming images OpenDocument Format

Converting Microsoft Office documents to ODF

Built-In transformations

Executing JavaScript as business rules

Using built-in JavaScript as actions Extending business rules with custom JavaScript

Setting up the Corporate Forms Space Creating custom JavaScript Executing custom JavaScript as an action

JavaScript API

Scheduled actions

Example to archive expired content XML configuration file for scheduled actions

The cron expression

Summary

7. Extending Alfresco Content Model

Custom configuration

Configuration files for default content model Configuration files for Custom Content Model

Custom model context file Custom model file Custom web client configuration file

Hierarchy of configuration files

Custom aspect

When do you need a custom aspect? Steps to add a custom aspect Defining a custom aspect Extend content model with custom aspect Localizing the model using message resources Configuring a web client for custom aspect Using a custom aspect as a business rule

Constraints

Constraint types

REGEX LIST MINMAX LENGTH

Applying a constraint

Advanced property sheet configuration

Display labels Conditional display of properties Converters Component generators

Custom content type

When do you need a custom content type? Steps to add a custom content type Defining a custom content type Extending content model with a custom content type Configuring a web client for custom content type Adding a custom content type Creating Press Release as HTML Content Creating business rules targeting custom content type

Custom associations

When do you need an association? Defining custom association Using custom association Presentation template for custom content type Association example

Dynamic models

Creating a dynamic custom model

Deploying a custom model Activating and inactivating a custom model Updating a custom model

Dynamic web client

Deploying web client customizations Reloading web client customizations

Dynamic models in a Multi-tenancy environment

Summary

8. Implementing Workflow

Introduction to the Alfresco workflow process Simple Workflow

Out-of-the-box features Defining and using Simple Workflow

Identifying spaces and security Defining the workflow process Adding a simple workflow to items Sending a notification to the manager for approval Testing the simple workflow

E-mail notification templates

Advanced workflows using Activiti

Out of the box features Creating custom advanced workflows

Process definition Activiti BPMN 2.0 Process Designer My first Activiti workflow sample Activiti workflow basics

Events Tasks Gateways Variables Node Objects User Assignment Pooled assignment Multi-instance tasks Listeners Form key

Creating and deploying your custom Activiti workflow

Step 1 – creating and deploying the process definition

Defining the workflow's process Setting properties Adding the decision logic Deployment

Step 2 – creating and deploying the task model

Dynamically deploying the task models

Step 3 – creating and deploying the workflow resource bundles

Dynamically deploy the resource bundles

Step 4 – creating and deploying the Alfresco Explorer Task dialogs

Dynamic Alfresco Explorer

Step 5 – testing the workflow

Summary

9. Integrating External Applications with Alfresco

Alfresco content platform

Embeddable Enterprise content management system Integrated enterprise content management system

Various protocols to integrate Using Web service as an integration solution Using FTP, WebDAV, and CIFS protocols for integration RESTful web services

Web Scripts

Understanding Web Scripts Implementing Web Scripts Hello World example Sample out-of-the-box portlet Web Scripts

Myspaces portlet Document list portlet Web Script

Web Script to list latest documents

Daily dose integration Web Script detail Integrating Web Script with an external Java application

Web Script to integrate document search

Document search Web Script detail Creating Web Scripts Storing Web Scripts Register Web Scripts Listing Web Scripts for external access Calling Web Scripts from an external application

Various application integration examples

Various available options

Using web service Using the CMIS proposed standard Other REST APIs Using your own API

Integrating with Drupal Integrating with Adobe Flex E-mail integration – MS Outlook, Lotus Notes, Novell, and Thunderbird Integrating with iPhone Alfresco Mobile application Integrating with FFMPEG video transcoder Integrating with ViewOnePro image viewer Integrating with Facebook social network application

Creating a new Facebook application Registering a Facebook application with Alfresco

Managing Alfresco Content from within Microsoft Office

Creating a document workspace Adding a document to document workspace Check-in and Check-out document

Check-out document Check-in document View version history

CMIS

Scope of CMIS Alfresco CMIS implementation

Liferay integration using CMIS

Summary

10. Alfresco Administration Operations Using Alfresco Share

Alfresco Share Managing Alfresco using the Admin Console in Alfresco Share

Managing users

Creating user accounts Editing user accounts Deleting user accounts

Managing groups

Creating groups

Top-level group Subgroups

Edit/delete groups Managing group memberships

Managing categories Managing social content publishing

Creating channels Setting channel permissions Authorizing channels Deleting channels

Managing fileservers Managing Activities Feed e-mails Managing Alfresco License Managing Replication Jobs

Creating replication jobs Editing replication jobs Deleting replication jobs Manually running a replication job Cancelling a running replication job

Managing Search

Search services The Lucene search service The Solr search service

Managing deleted files Managing workflows

Viewing the workflow engine properties

Activiti engine properties jBPM engine properties

Managing IMAP emails Google Docs integration

Summary

11. Customizing the User Interface

Configuring Alfresco Explorer

Configuring views

Configuring space views Applying a Custom View on a space Configuring forum topics sort direction Adding a custom icon to a space Configuring HTML links to appear in Alfresco Explorer

User-configurable dashboards

Writing custom dashlets

Creating a custom dashlet script Creating a custom dashlet JSP Configuring custom dashlet JSP in Alfresco Explorer Restarting Alfresco Using the custom dashlet in the My Alfresco Dashboard

Using webscripts as dashlets

Creating a custom dashlet JSP Configuring the custom dashlet JSP Configuring the MySpaces dashlet Custom dashlet

FreeMarker dashlet from the repository

Presentation templates The FreeMarker template engine within Alfresco The Alfresco objects available to FreeMarker FreeMarker template-node model API FreeMarker directives Custom template to preview web pages Custom template for XML content Custom templates for custom space view

Customizing JSP Client Various user interface options Summary

12. Search in Alfresco

Overview Search using Alfresco Explorer

Simple search

Search filenames only

Advanced search

Search by content location Search by content category Search by content properties

Extending the search form

Configuring the web client user interface Searching custom content and properties

Saving search as a report

Defining complex search criteria Saving search criteria as a public or private report Re-using a saved search

OpenSearch

Alfresco's open search engines

Keyword search description Sample keyword search in HTML Sample keyword search in RSS

Configuring the Alfresco search engine

The theory behind the search engine Limiting the search results Indexing properties Controlling indexing of a node Configuring Lucene in Alfresco

Using the Solr search engine with Alfresco

Installing Solr on an independent server

Configuring Solr in Alfresco

The Solr admin console Rebuilding Solr indexes

Summary

13. Implementing Imaging and Forms Processing

Introduction

Electronic imaging and the paperless office Forms processing Alfresco for imaging and forms processing

Example of an imaging solution with workflow

Setting up space and security Business rule to extract important metadata Connecting the scanner to the network folder Uploading scanned documents into the repository in bulk

Scanning solutions with Alfresco Integrating with Ephesoft

Installing Ephesoft Creating a custom type in Alfresco Creating a custom document type in Ephesoft Configuring the CMIS plugin in Ephesoft Processing batch in Ephesoft and store in Alfresco

Summary

14. Administering and Maintaining the System

Exporting and importing content

Alfresco Content Package (ACP) Exporting and importing space content

Export of a department space using Alfresco Explorer Importing a department space using Alfresco Explorer

Using business rules to import data Using command-line tools

The export tool The import tool The bulk import tool

Data backup

List of items to back up

The content stored in filesystem The metadata stored in the relational database Customization files Logfiles

Backup frequency Backups based on the Alfresco deployment

Alfresco deployed as a repository application server Alfresco deployed as Clustered Repository Server Alfresco deployed as hot backup

Upgrading to newer versions of Alfresco

Upgrading to a minor release Upgrading to a major release

General maintenance tips

Regular maintenance of deleted items Examining logfiles Resetting the administrator password Resetting the complete repository data Migrating servers

The Java Management Extension (JMX) interface Summary

Index

← Prev
Back
Next →

← Prev
Back
Next →