Configuring Contribute Publishing Services


After the installation is complete, you need to configure CPS, both generally and for a particular Web site. Each of the major features of CPS is affected by the configuration settings:

  • To use the User Directory feature, you need to tell CPS whether to work with a file-based directory or a directory service such as LDAP or Active Directory. If a file-based directory is chosen, you can add users directly from the CPS administrative interface. When a directory service is selected, you need to configure CPS to connect to the service. You can also set search parameters to limit the group of users in your directory service.

  • To enable CPS to handle all email notifications, specify the email server and provide the required user name and password.

  • You can manage the logs (created automatically for CPS) by restricting their size and the number of maintained files. After the CPS log reaches the set file size, a new file begins; after the maximum number of files have been created, the oldest file is overwritten.

You can also determine when email notifications are sent and whether or not to maintain a log on a site-by-site basis. The choices you make for these settings are applied to every site connected to the CPS server.

After CPS has been installed on your Web server, the program must be running to be recognized by Contribute or to be configured. On Windows servers, this service is automatically started when the operating system is launched.

Note

If the service has been stopped, select Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Services; right-click Macromedia Contribute Publishing Services from the Services panel; and choose Start. For Linux and Solaris servers, run the script startCPS.sh found in the bin folder of your CPS install directory.


As when configuring any server-side component, gather the appropriate information before you begin. To configure CPS properly, you need the following:

  • The password created during the installation process.

  • If you're using a directory service, you need the address to the LDAP or Active Directory service as well as the user name and password for access. In this lesson, you'll set up a file-based directory, so no additional information is needed for the user directory.

  • To enable the Email Notification server, gather the SMTP host name and the port used, as well as the user name and password combination required to connect. To complete this lesson, use the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) information from your current system. (Retrieve it by opening your email client and locating the account details for outgoing mail.)

In this exercise, you'll configure CPS by setting up a file-based user directory, adding a number of fictitious users, connecting to an email server, and setting log parameters. After establishing the configuration settings, you'll enable CPS for your site.

1.

Choose Start > All Programs > Macromedia > Macromedia Contribute Publishing Services >Administer Macromedia Contribute Publishing Services. When the login screen appears in your system browser, enter the password defined during installation designdeployand click Log In. If you have a firewall protection program running, it might alert you that a program is requesting access to the Internet; choose whatever option is needed to allow access. If you receive a Security Alert regarding the site's security certificate, click Yes.

This is no ordinary HTML login screen; it's actually a Flash application, as is the entire configuration interface. The entire configuration module was built in Macromedia Flex and runs as a Flash movie.

After you log in, the Overview page of the CPS Administration Console appears. Although this page is mostly a set of helpful instructions on how to get started with CPS, it does display one key bit of information necessary for connecting to Contribute.

2.

Under the section "To use Publishing Services, do the following using Contribute," locate the line that starts with "Click Enable Publishing Services" and make note of the Internet address that follows.

The URL provided is the address that allows Contribute to locate and connect to CPS. The address will look something like this: https://myMachine:8900/contribute (where myMachine is the name of your computer). Note that the secure HTTPS protocol is used rather than the Internet standard HTTP protocol. The :8900 part of the address refers to the port used by CPS. You have to enter the full address displayed in Contribute's Administer Website dialog box.

3.

Click the User Directory category in the Service Settings area. From the Directory Type list, choose File-based. Click Add to open the Add User dialog box. Create the first user by entering your name in the Full Name field, your email address, a user name, and password. Re-enter the password in the Confirm New Password field and click OK. Repeat the process to add two more users with these details:

Full Name

Email Address

User Name

Password

Pat Publish

ppublish@bountygeneral.com

ppublish

publish

W. Writer

wwriter@bountygeneral.com

wwriter

write


Each time you create a new user, the data is written to an XML file. The user_directory.xml file is stored in the system folder for CPS, within a subfolder called database. A typical XML entry looks like this:

 <user>  <username>ppublish</username>  <email>ppublish@bountygeneral.com</email>  <name>Pat Publish</name>  <passwordHash>WkqhJIJckVikp6GHLMQ2pg==</passwordHash>  <salt>31264264</salt> </user> 

Even if the password information is included in the file, it's encrypted and can be decoded only by CPS and by Contribute.

New users can be entered at any time; the entries for existing users can also be modified or removed if necessary. Users entered here are not automatically assigned a role in Contribute; you'll see how that process works in Lesson 11.

Tip

You can alter the folder storing the user_directory.xml file by choosing the Settings tab of the User Directory category and selecting Browse.

4.

Click the E-mail category in the Service Settings area. Enter the address to your email server in the SMTP Host field. Unless your SMTP host uses a different port fromthe standard, leave 25 as the Port field value. Enter the user name and password requiredfor the email server in the appropriate fields. If a timeout period shorter or longer than 60 seconds is desired, enter a new value (in seconds) in the Connection Timeout field.

Typical email category settings look like this:

SMTP Host

smtp.bountygeneral.com

Port

25

Username

jlowery

Password

********

Connection Timeout

60


You should apply the outgoing mail server settings for your system during this lesson. When working in a real-world situation, the SMTP server referenced should be available for use by the entire Contribute-related organization; it might or might not be the general outgoing email server.

Some organizations maintain multiple SMTP servers for different purposes; for example, one server might be used to communicate with those outside the organization, and another for internal email traffic. If you're given a choice, use the internally focused SMTP server for CPS email notification.

5.

Click the Log category in the Service Settings area. In the Max Log File Size field, enter 100; in the Max Archive Files field, enter 10.

The suggested valuesa maximum log file size of 100 kilobytes with 10 archive filesare adequate for a small or medium-sized organization with 10 to 20 Contribute users modifying the site on a weekly basis. When working with a larger deployment, you might need to adjust the numbers upward.

Note

If multiple sites are using the same CPS server, all sites are limited to the log values set on this page.

6.

Click the Website Settings category in the Service Settings area. From the Website list, choose the server address for the Design_Deploy site. Make sure that both the E-mail Notification options and the Log option are selected. Click Save Settings.

The Website Settings category gives you control over who receives email notification. Depending on your organization's policy, you might want to change the default values. Optionally, you can disable the default value that ensures Contribute users who have been selected to review a draft receive a separate email notification to that effect. When a person is assigned to review a draft, the file listing appears in the Pages panel as well as in Contribute's Draft Console; the Draft Console is covered in Lesson 11. You can also stop email notices from being sent to the Contribute user who submitted a draft for review. This information is also contained in the Draft Console.

Whether the email notification is usedpartially, fully, or not at allis a decision for the entire Contribute deployment team. Although enabling email notification does result in an increase in email traffic, it's a useful tool to help familiarize users with the Contribute workflow.

Both the email notification and log options can be disabled at any time. On the other hand, I recommend always maintaining a log for a site. You might not have an immediate need for the data it offerswhich pages have been modified and by whombut after a period of time, you'll find the log useful for tracking trends as well as pinpointing a particular modification.

7.

After you finish configuring the CPS server, click Log Out. Close your browser window.

The final task is to enable CPS for your Contribute site, which is the responsibility of the Contribute site administrator.

8.

In Contribute, choose Edit > Administer Websites > Design_Deploy. When the Administer Website dialog box opens, select the Publishing Services category. Click Enable Publishing Services. In the dialog box that opens, Enable Publishing Services, enter the URL to the CPS serveras noted in the Overview page of the Contribute Publishing Services administrative console. Make sure that the Enable User Directory option is checked and click OK.

9.

When Contribute informs you that the connection is now managed by the CPS server, click OK. After the Publishing Services category is updated, click Close to dismiss the Administer Website dialog box.

Note

When you enable the User Directory aspect of CPS, all previously connected users are disconnected and their connection keys are made invalid. You'll need to assign available users to roles and then generate and send new connection-key files to them. This process is covered in Lesson 11 .

A link to the Publishing Services console is made available after the connection is made. This link opens the CPS administrative console in your system browser, just as if you had selected the program shortcut.



Design and Deploy Websites with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Contribute 3(c) Training from the Source
Design and Deploy Websites with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Contribute 3: Training from the Source
ISBN: 032128884X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 130
Authors: Joseph Lowery

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net