Chapter 10. Setting Up Contribute Publishing Services

What You Will Learn

In this lesson, you will:

• Learn the benefits of Contribute Publishing Services

• Download the Contribute Publishing Services installer

• Install the Contribute Publishing Services program

• Set up Contribute Publishing Services for your sites

Approximate Time

This lesson takes approximately one hour to complete.

Lesson Files

Media Files:

None

Starting Files:

None

Completed Files:

None

Shortly after the release of the initial versions of Macromedia Contribute, it became apparent that Contribute was experiencing growing pains. More and more small businesses were adopting the software, while an even greater number of midsize organizations were evaluating it. The standalone version of Contribute was (and still is) an ideal solution for companies with a limited number of employees changing the company Web site. The existing connection key system and the voluntary review process work quite well when used by small groups of content contributors.

Concerns arose, however, as larger corporate, educational, and government organizations began to apply Contribute to their sites. In these environments, maintaining connection keys became more time-consuming and problematic as the number of content contributors grew. Complex organizational structures demanded a more formal review process. Increased activity across the board made the task of tracking changes extremely difficult.

Centralize Contribute user management through the User Directory module of Contribute Publishing Services.

Contribute Publishing Services (CPS) was created as a direct response to Contribute's increasing markets. By using CPS, you can add and manage a large number of users in a variety of ways and take advantage of existing user directories. CPS also offers a compre hensive architecture for handling draftsfrom approval notification to tracking to publishing. Moreover, CPS can log all site-modification activities and present the information in standard formats for printing, posting, or integrating into existing report systems.

Because CPS is server based, the initial setup and configuration involves a series of steps that are somewhat different from those of the typical client-side program. In this lesson, you'll learn how to retrieve, install, and configure CPS to get the most out of it for a variety of situations. First, though, you'll need a little more in-depth background on what CPS is and how it operates.