Alfresco Repository Architecture Overview

12 March 2008 Presented by: Sumer Jabri

Rivet Logic Corporation 1800 Alexander Bell Drive Suite 400 Reston, VA 20191 Ph: 703.234.7761 Fax: 703.234.7711

Presentation Overview
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Motivation

Get a high-level architectural overview of Alfrescos content repository Positioning Technology Overview Services and Components Programmatic APIs Repository Protocols Alfresco-based Content Rich Application Considerations
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Scope

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Technology Overview
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Alfresco

Built using best of breed OSS projects Provides complete set of content management solutions Not tied to a specific operating system, web browser, application server, nor database

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The Four Big Areas of Content Management

Web Content Management Document Management

Records Management

Content Repository

Image Management

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Alfresco as an ECM Solution

Message System Integration Knowledge Portals
App Server Portal Server Business Process Engine

Web Services
CRM

Virtual File System

FTP

Content Repository

High Availability

CIFS WebDAV Hot Standby

Full-text Indexes & Categories

Storage

Metadata DBMS

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Out of the Box

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Out of the box, Alfresco

Deploys as a complete working content management application Runs like a typical web application
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Application server
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User interface Repository Database File system No client installation costs

Persistent back-end
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Any number of web browsers

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Out of the Box Installation

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App server houses

Alfresco application Alfresco repository Reusable, cross-cutting, content management services

~ ~ ~ ~

Alfresco repository

Content storage Query Versioning Transformation

Architecture is

Open Modular
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Components can be used in isolation or together

Support for

DM - Document Management RM - Records Management WCM - Web Content Management

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Currently only uses subset of repository services Adds complex layering and versioning support for sophisticated web production

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Services and Components

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Alfresco Repository is composed of

Services
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Interface entry point for a client to bind to and use Implementation black box Provides specific capabilities

Components
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Architecture Advantages
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Existing components can be replaced

Better implementation Better integration with existing environment No impact to clients Lighter, possibly faster Alfresco

Remove unnecessary features

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Spring Framework
! ! !

Simplifies architecture implementation Core foundation of Alfresco architecture Components are

Declaratively configured and bound together Adding transactions and security to components declaratively No implementation pollution

Spring AOP allows for

Resources are abstracted (e.g. Database)

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Programmatic APIs
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Alfresco provides three primary APIs

Repository Foundation Services

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Local Java interfaces covering all capabilities Ideal for embedding the repository Standard Java API (JSR-170) Remote access and binding to any client environment (Java, .NET, PHP, Ruby)

JCR
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Web Services
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Repository Foundation Services [1/3]

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Repository Foundation Services

Public interface point Services are Java interfaces Client isn't aware of implementation Services registry lists available services Provide implementation Configured using Spring
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Components

XML Context files Foundation services are configured and bound in public-services-context.xml

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Repository Foundation Services [2/3]

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Repository foundation services

Lowest level public interface Provide access to all repository capabilities Client binds to services using
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Service registry Spring dependency injection (if Spring aware)

Client must be running within same JVM (embed Alfresco) Enforce transactions and security policies
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Declaratively specified and enforced using Spring AOP Every service in Alfresco is transactional and secure

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Repository Foundation Services [3/3]

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Repository foundation services (cont'd)

All public entry points go through this layer

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Web services JCR Component configuration Additional components and services Externalized extensions
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Common scheme for extending the repository

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Automatically plugged-in Core repository can be upgraded independently

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Key Foundation Services [1/4]

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Repository is about storage and retrieval of content In Alfresco, this is accomplished using

Node Content Index/Search

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Key Foundation Services [2/4]

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Node

Provides meta-data
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Name, date, author, etc.

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Not the same as meta-data supplied via WCMs web-forms

Provides structure
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Relationship to other nodes (file/folder model)

Content

Actual stored information

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Word document, JPG image, etc.

Index/Search

Indexing information allows retrieval of meta-data and content

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Key Foundation Services [3/4]

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Repository storage and retrieval is provided by

Node Service Content Service Search Service Nearly all foundation services and clients go through these

These three services form the core

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Key Foundation Services [4/4]

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Meta-data is stored in the database

Transaction support Scalability Administration capabilities

Content is stored in the file system

Allows for very large content Random access Streaming Options for different storage devices Hibernate Lucene

Built upon strong OSS projects

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Content Domain Foundation Services

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All services are implemented using the same component architecture

Transactional Secure Configured using Spring WCMs AVM services, Meta-data extraction, Content Transformation, Templating, Classification, Versioning, Locking, Content Modeling, Image Manipulation, Work-flow, Import and Export, Permissions,

Services include

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Repository Protocols [1/2]

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Alfresco repository supports

CIFS (Common Internet File System) WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) FTP

These protocols are exposed for content management

Limited to files and folders Described by the default content model and derivatives

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Repository Protocols [2/2]

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Protocol components are Spring configured Protocol components are built on top of the repository foundation services

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Triggers and Stored Procedures

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Rules

Get initiated based on a trigger, and conditions

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Trigger examples: Inbound, outbound Condition examples: Item matches a MIME type

Actions

Examples: Move, copy, apply aspect Compound actions are a series of actions wrapped together into one action Are similar to events Allow model specific behavior to be injected
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Policies

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Content Rich Application Considerations [1/2]

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Content Model

Custom meta-data
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Properties, indexing, multi-valued Compound documents

Associations and structure Meta-data constraints Model specific automatic behaviors Custom meta-data extractors, content transformers, actions, and conditions

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Content Rich Application Considerations [2/2]

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Repository Structure

Space (folder) hierarchy

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Spaces as content packages Meta-data extraction Content arrangement Naming-convention enforcement Content type specialization Content MIME-type transformation Etc.

Space rules to automate:

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Real-World Examples
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Content Model

Custom spaces with meta-data as content packages Custom content items with multi-valued content property
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Multi-page scanned document

Associations between documents and various renditions of those documents (e.g. XML <-> PDF) Space (folder) hierarchy
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Repository Structure

/YYYY/MM/DD/Package/
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Custom meta-data for a package includes a Package Id derived from content ! Facilitates rapid package search and retrieval Naming convention enforced for certain types/spaces Automatic meta-data extraction, content type specialization, and content arrangement (into packages)
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~ ~

/Package/Sub-Package/item
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/DropZone/ (CIFS mapped)

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Questions?

Questions?

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