Alfresco Labs 3 FAQ

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The official documentation is at: http://docs.alfresco.com

3.0

Table of Contents

• 1 3.0 FAQ
  
  
  
  • 1.1 Q: What is Alfresco Share?
  
  
  • 1.2 Q: Does this mean Alfresco is moving away from Document Management and Web Content Management?
  
  
  • 1.3 Q: What is Slingshot?
  
  
  • 1.4 Q: The Alfresco Surf Platform ... is that like Web Scripting?
  
  
  • 1.5 Q: What is the Web Framework?
  
  
  • 1.6 Q: The existing Web Client is built using Java Server Faces (JSF), why didn't you use this to bu...
  
  
  • 1.7 Q: Does Alfresco Share replace the current Web Client? How does it relate to Docs (DM) and Sites...
  
  
  • 1.8 Q: Will Alfresco Share have all the features offered by the current Web Client?
  
  
  • 1.9 Q: What are the key features provided by Alfresco Share?
  
  
  • 1.10 Q: Since Alfresco Share is a new application, can existing customers use content already in the...
  
  
  • 1.11 Q: Can I access Alfresco Share Sites from the current Web Client?
  
  
  • 1.12 Q: Will the 3 release include any repository enhancements?
  
  
  • 1.13 Q: Are there any enhancements to the existing Web Client in 3.0?
  
  
  • 1.14 Q: What are the WCM enhancements for 3.0?
  
  
  • 1.15 Q: Does Alfresco Share support Multi-Tenancy?
  
  

3.0 FAQ

Q: What is Alfresco Share?

Alfresco Share is a new application from Alfresco, providing collaborative content services built on Alfresco's core repository and the new Alfresco Web Framework.

Q: Does this mean Alfresco is moving away from Document Management and Web Content Management?

Absolutely not. It is complementary to our core document and web content management capabilities - both areas where we continue to invest as well.

Q: What is Slingshot?

Slingshot is the internal project name we have been using for Alfresco Share.

Q: The Alfresco Surf Platform ... is that like Web Scripting?

Yes and yes:  the Alfresco Surf Platform is an enterprise-class web application and site assembly framework. It's built on the Web Scripts features that were introduced in 2.1.

Q: What is the Web Framework?

The Web Framework is the internal project name we have been using for Alfresco Surf Platform.

Q: The existing Web Client is built using Java Server Faces (JSF), why didn't you use this to build Slingshot?

In a word, extensibility.  JSF was the right choice when the original Web Client design was completed.  Over time, we realized that it was too difficult for Alfresco and it's customers and partners to extend.

Q: Does Alfresco Share replace the current Web Client? How does it relate to Docs (DM) and Sites (WCM)?

No. Alfresco Share (project name Slingshot) is a new application that can be used along side the existing Web Client. The current Web UI will continue to be available for pure play Document Management and WCM applications.  The Web Client is also required to perform some of the more advanced actions in Share document libraries such as maintaining rules.

Q: Will Alfresco Share have all the features offered by the current Web Client?

Not initially. The Alfresco Share application was built to address an Extranet application use case. It introduces a new User Interface design, interactions, and components.  These features will be built out over time to accommodate more scenarios.

Q: What are the key features provided by Alfresco Share?

• A completely new UI designed to provide a Web 2.0 style user experience.
  
• Collaboration areas for Teams, Projects, Communities of Interest/Practice known as Sites.
  
• Personal and Site Dashboards
  
  • Dashlets configured via drag n' drop
    
• Libraries of components that can be configured to included in a site including:
  
  • Document Library
    
  • Calender
    
  • Blog
    
  • Wiki
    
  • Discussions
    
• Social Tagging
  
• Thumbnails and Previews
  
• Activity Service
  
• Rich Personal Profiles
  
• People Finder
  
• Site Finder
  

Q: Since Alfresco Share is a new application, can existing customers use content already in their Alfresco repositories when they upgrade to 3.0?

Customers can reuse existing content managed by Alfresco by moving / copying content from any spaces in the Web Client to the Document Library portion of Alfresco Share.  Note: Any rules defined on the spaces moved / copied *will* continue to work.

Q: Can I access Alfresco Share Sites from the current Web Client?

Administrators can access Share sites from the Web Client to perform actions not initially available from the Share interface. Standard users should use the Share client only.
This type of access is analogous to system folders in Windows, i.e. only experience users should make changes to system folders, in the same way, only experienced Alfresco users should use the Web Client against Alfresco Share Sites.

Q: Will the 3 release include any repository enhancements?

Yes, there are number of enhancements to the core repository in the areas of performance, integrity and support including:

• Improved index reliability and rebuild performance
  
• Improved audit and content property update performance
  
• Improved LDAP sync performance
  
• Clustered Job Locking to ensure Job integrity in a cluster.
  
• Person deletion support - people are marked as deleted for referential integrity
  

We are also looking to address performance issues with versioning. We hope to complete this in the 3.0 timeframe.

Q: Are there any enhancements to the existing Web Client in 3.0?

We are focusing our efforts on the new Alfresco Share UI. Moving forward, we plan to provide all the Document Management and WCM capabilities in the Alfresco Share UI.
Any Web Client enhancements will therefore be carefully targeted at addressing specific issues. For 3.0 we will be providing new user interface components to allow the management of permissions within a Web Project.

For the WCM Web Client:

• the list of sandboxes is now filtered to improve performance when there are a large number of sandboxes.
  
• deployment servers can be grouped and selected by group
  

Q: What are the WCM enhancements for 3.0?

For the 3.0 release we are focusing on WCM stability, ease of integration and development and the Alfresco Dynamic Website.
Specific enhancements include:

• Repository Enhancements: Enable WCM services at the repository level rather than the Web Client. This will remove the need to use the Web Client to create sandboxes, launch workflows, invite users etc.
  
• WCM Web Scripts: We will promote the use of Web Scripts as a way to work with WCM content. This will make it much easier for people to build their own UI (which many customers have done or want to do) via a consistent, Web Script based API.
  
• WCM Benchmark Framework: Improve the performance, reliability and sizing of AVM based applications by providing benchmarking tools to test build loading and stress testing of AVM stores.
  
• Alfresco Web Studio (Working Title): Visual application to manage Web Projects creation, management and update on top of the Web Framework. NOTE: For 3.0 this will be example application and sample site.
  
• Compare Sandboxes (also known as AVM Compare) - View a list of the changed assets between any snapshot versions in staging or individual user sandbox.
  
• Deployment to FSR has had major enhancements for performance and now supports a framework for changing the communication protocols.
  

Q: Does Alfresco Share support Multi-Tenancy?

Not initially, there are a number of issues that need to be resolved before this will be possible. However, MT support for Alfresco Share is on the roadmap for possible inclusion in the next Labs release.