Introduction to IBM s Content Manager

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Introduction to IBM's Content Manager

A content management system (CMS) is used to create and administer content. It includes the function needed to define and apply workflow to the management of the content's life cycle and to specify and enforce mechanisms that control access to the content. A CMS for Web content must also be able to make the content available in formats suitable for the variety of devices that can access content over the Web.

A CMS for Web content is conceptually composed of an authoring environment and a run-time or hosting environment. Many enterprises already have a well-established hosting environment. The challenge for a Web CMS is to adapt and interface with the existing environment, without requiring major changes to the infrastructure. Many vendors such as Interwoven, Vignette, and Documentum offer Web content management solutions. Most ready-to-go solutions require some customization and additional development to satisfy a customer's business and technical requirements. Instead of providing such a solution, IBM's Content Manager Version 8.1 allows reuse of the repository and provides tools and application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable a wide range of applications.

IBM Content Manager for Multiplatforms Version 8.1 (hereafter called Content Manager) is IBM's core offering for managing enterprise content. It incorporates multiple technologies to satisfy the requirements of most enterprises for managing documents and document access. Most companies not only manage content internally, but also make this content available on the Web in a controlled fashion. Conceptually, Content Manager is a repository built using a conventional relational database. Content Manager allows reuse of the repository and provides tools and application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable a wide range of applications.

Content Manager components

The main components of Content Manager are the library server, the resource manager, the application programming interfaces (APIs), eClient, and Client for Windows.

  • The library server is central to managing enterprise content. It includes data modeling capabilities, storage and retrieval of content with referential integrity, access control, authentication integration with LDAP, transaction support, document management, version control, various levels of logging and XPath/Xquery based query support for parametric and text search functionality.

  • Resource managers are repositories optimized for the storage and retrieval of documents, images, and other multimedia content. The Content Manager resource manager runs as a Web application inside IBM WebSphere® Application Server Version 4.

  • The APIs provide data modeling tools and connection capabilities to the library server and the resource manager. APIs are provided for C++ and Java.

  • eClient is the browser-based thin client and Client for Windows is the desktop client that provides graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to the content management system. The clients include JavaBean support for rapid application development with such features as versioning, document management, and enhanced workflow to create custom applications.

This chapter describes a Web content management (WCM) application built using Content Manager.

Figure 7-1 shows the general topology of the applications discussed in this chapter.

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Figure 7-1: Topology of applications discussed in this chapter

Advantages of using Content Manager for Web content management (WCM)

Web content can be managed in a relational database or a file system, or a combination of the two. However, designing and building such a system from scratch requires an extensive development effort. The main issues that make development complex are:

  • Modeling the structured Web content, usually in XML or XHTML, in the relational database

  • Maintaining the containment and referential links between the fragments of content

  • Maintaining referential integrity between the database and the file system

  • Providing extensibility for model changes

Content Manager has solutions for these issues. Its library server and resource manager offer the ability to manage different kinds of objects. Users can change the data model easily while maintaining referential integrity between objects. Because it leverages both Java and XML technologies, Content Manager allows the client to use either or a combination of both, offering flexibility to the design. Instead of rows and columns, one works with a higher level of data allowing the programmer to work with content semantics. The Content Manager data model lends itself more to XML than to a DB2 relational model, therefore allowing the creation of a hierarchical model.



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High-Volume Web Sites Team - More about High-Volume Web Sites
High-Volume Web Sites Team - More about High-Volume Web Sites
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 117

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