Who Are You Working For?

Before we talk about the details, we need to understand why we are doing what we’re doing.  For me that starts out with defining who we’re doing what for.  So when implementing a web content managment system, even one without an external integration requirement, who is the primary customer?  If you’re thinking the end users or consumers of the site, you’re wrong.  End users are of course important, but as an implementor the primary customer is actually the content contributors.  The often overlook contributor is the first person that should be considered with every requirement or approach.  The reason of course is that a content management implementation is not about implementing a web site, it’s about implementing a tool that allows content contributors to implement and manage a web site.

So what are we looking for in a good contributor-oriented approach?

1. The process should be as simple and straightforward as possible.  Obviously that’s a subjective statement; one person’s simple could also be Lotus Notes.  Contributors vary in skill level and functionality differs with requirements; what we’re striving for though is not necessarily a process that is so simple a child could do it, but one which allows contributors to work as easily and efficiently as possible.
2. Contributors should not need outside assistance or coordination with other groups to contribute content and post it to the site(portal/ external application).  This is a huge no no.  If the contributors need to call developers to move content or have it appear on the site, there’s a huge obstacle to adoption in the way.  Unfortunately this is often one of the first compromises that often happen when integrating with an external application.
3. The basic features of web contribution should be available; images, hyperlinks and basic formatting(bold, underline, italic, bullets, etc) are going to be expected. If have the discussion forums out there support indenting..you’re probably going to need that feature too.
4. Contributors should feel confident that they cannot break their site.  Ideally this means they should not have access to tools or formatting which can break the look and feel of the site.  Workflows should be used to provide an approval process.  We’re looking to empower contributors and ironically nothing breeds creativity like boundaries.  If they feel like they can do no harm, they are more likely to take advantage of the tool.

If you look through that list what you’ll find are some pretty basic requirements for any web content management system.  Every CMS from the Drupal to UCM to Ektron has those basic features and then some, but what if we surface that content through a portal or another application?  How many features will contributors loose right off the bat?

Checklist?  Checkmate…

To sum up what we’re trying to do, the overall the goal is to encourage content contribution by empowering contributors. That’s a goal in every CMS project, but when an external portal/application is included we also need to provide the fundamental contribution features of a CMS in that remote portal or application.

That doesn’t mean just editing text in the portal either.  Contribution is not just about a bunch of words, it’s also about images and tying all that information together with links.  Contributors do not care if it’s a portal, a content management system, a custom site or a magic flashy box.  There are certain fundamental features that are expected and there will be dissatisfaction and lack of adoption if they are not there.  It’s not the contributors faults either…their customers(the end users) have come to expect images and links in what they read.  If it’s boring, hard-to-follow content, why bother reading it?  And if no one is reading it, why keep contributing it?  And then of course what good was that expensive content management project, if no one is going to contribute?

How do we know if we have a good strategy though?  There are a couple of questions I’ve put together which I think help assess a strategy and at the very least identify it’s strengths and weaknesses.

1.  Describe the process for adding and/or editing a page in the integrated environment.  Can the contributor do it on their own(ignoring any workflow)?  Do they need access more than one system to post a single page of content?  If they can’t(do it on their own) or they have to(access more than one system), you might want to head back to the drawing table.  Those are enthusiasm killers for contributors.

2.  How will images be contributed and delivered? Images can be a major pain.  If you’re contributing them in a WYSIWYG editor, typically they head to the CMS or an external repository.  References to images in content need to be preserved, re-written or proxied.  What path will you take and and why?

3.  How will links between pages work? This is usually the question that sends us back to the drawing board.  If you are surfacing content from a CMS on to a portal, how do you link to another page on the portal while using the CMS’s editor?  Relative links are sometimes an options, as are tokens.  It’s important to have a solid approach though as when you are referencing items in two different systems things can get very confusing quickly leaving the site with many broken links.

Even though we’re dealing with some fundamental features, believe it or not once you introduce that separate application very few implementations would get an A+ on all three areas.  At work we’ve taken over some less than successful projects and the #1 problem is not that the site or portal don’t deliver content well, it’s that no one can effectively contribute.  It’s only three general questions to drive a discussion, but I’ve found them to be a very effective check list for separating good ideas from bad ones.

Manifesto or Just Manifest?

The goal of this post is to set up and explain my mindset and strategy for several integration examples on how to approach a portal integration with a CMS(ok they are all UCM/WebCenter examples).  In looking at some of the planned posts, it was clear that they might not makes all that much sense without setting the stage first.

They’ve been up for a couple of weeks and I think the content so far has been excellent.  I know all of the folks who are posting and they really are a very sharp group.  In addition to UCM, there should be some really good .NET and Sharepoint stuff posted.

Under the hood is the technical blog, lots of code and frameworks.  I *think* most of the UCM/Content Management stuff will be found here over all.  Some of you might know Aaron Romaine from OpenWorlds past.  He joined our team a few months ago and has dropped a couple UCM articles out there.

Fit and Finish is the designers, information architects and front end developer blog.  Just looking at the most recent posts though, it looks like there also a good amount of technical information here too.

So give them a read.  I’ll be double posting some of my stuff over there in the coming days.

Fedora the Explorer

When you start out creating a new blank instance, Amazon provides several templates to start with.  As you can see from the list though they all appear to be either Fedora or Windows(towards the bottom). I’m not sure of your experiences, but as far as the elements of a UCM instance(Web server, UCM and the database) go, the database can be the trickiest of all of them.  And also for me to consider this a complete install, I really wanted to have Oracle Text Search running, which requires an 11G database.

I am pretty sure that a Windows VM would have worked for all of this, but it’s more expensive per hour and if I’m honest it felt a bit like cope out since it’s so much easier to work with.  I really wanted this to all run on a Linux box, so rather than take the easy road I decided to give the Fedora install a shot.

Unfortunately Amazon Fedora template my not have been the best choice to begin with.  I’m sure I would have gotten it at some point, but the workarounds combined with the oddities of Amazon’s template kept sending me down some rabbit holes.  It was a lovely Sunday afternoon, surely there’s a better Linux instance for this little proof of concept than Fedora?

So I cheated

It turns out that besides Windows or even Fedora, there is a much, much better option.  And after an hour or so of dealing with my Fedora issues I decided to use a very clever tool to research the best way to do this install.

Oracle, as I soon discovered, is already way ahead of me in setting up their database in the cloud.  There’s a whole bunch of documents about the subject, a FAQ page, a wiki and most importantly several machine images anyone with an EC2 account can use.

You’ll find the Oracle images on the community tab when you create a new instance in the AWS console.  There are a bunch, but if you search for Oracle, you’ll find what you’re looking for.

When you SSH in for the first time, a script runs that will takes you through the DB setup and configuration.  The script seemed a bit light, so I think the VM might really be just intended for demo purposes.  Anyone familiar with the near innumerable number of options in a DB install will find this a bit light.  For folks like myself though who’d rather get on with other things than ASM backup configurations…it’s just about perfect.

How much does a Gazillion processor licenses for Oracle cost?

For a very long time Oracle didn’t really allow customers to licence by virtual procssor.  Organizations who planned on running on virtual machines had to purchase a license for every processor on the host system(the exception being IBM PowerVM as you can isolate processors to an lpar).  That policy, at least towards some vendors like Amazon has changed

For the purposes of licensing Oracle programs in the Cloud environment, customers are required to count each virtual core as equivalent to a physical core. This policy applies to all programs available on a processor metric.

When I saw that right off the first thing I thought when I started down the road of running UCM on an Amazon VM was “Great! pay for one processor license and then run it on the cloud across thousands of servers.  Silly Oracle how could they not have seen that huge loop hole”.  Yeah…not so much.

The thing is that Amazon commoditizes it’s processor power into things called compute units.  Virtual processors are then made up of these compute units.

One EC2 Compute Unit provides the equivalent CPU capacity of a 1.0-1.2 GHz 2007 Opteron or 2007 Xeon processor

So even though you’re running on the cloud, you’re supososably isolated off to your own little share of the processing power.  Besides IO, what’s really the advantage then?  If the processors or the same(or worse really) than anything you’d bring on house, why bother?  Well all is not lost..there definitly are still some serious advantages from a licensing perspective

1. According to the Oracle doc a virtual core is equivalent to a physical core.  Though my little sample VM had only one virtual core with one compute unit, there are a number of hosting packages where virtual cores house as much as 3.25 compute units.
2. Have you tried to purchase a server with one processor lately?  They just aren’t available, even the single processor servers have 2-4 cores.  With Amazon you could run a cluster of four one processor servers and get exactly what you want.
3. UCM is notoriously light and efficient; even more so now that verity is out of it.  Over and over again it’s continually made me look like a genius during load tests on hardware I wouldn’t run this blog on.  I think one of my next posts will be on where I think the real UCM sizing should be.  I just don’t see it needing a ton of processor power.  IO perhaps, which you should have a lot of, but not processor.

In addition to all of that, there should be a huge savings for you from the hosting perspective.  Frankly if you’re budgeting for UCM implementation and planning to run it on Amazon, hosting is effectively free.  To run the current instance I have out there right now, it will cost me $227.50 per year.  For the most expensive instance possible (64bit, 32gb of ram, 13 virtual cores), it would cost $6370 annually.  Bandwidth is even more comically cheap: $.15 per GB for the first 10 Terrabytes, after that it drops to $.11 per GB for the next 40 and so on.

Well can we see it?

I’m going to leave my virtual machine up for a bit.  If you email me I’ll give you the link to take a look…I’m not sure if it still counts as a developer license if I post the URL publicly.

So far there’s no content other than Site Studio; I think I’m going to set up a quick site and run some tests for that follow up post on scaling.  Check back and I’ll share the results.

So what have you been working on?

The past couple months have been very fun technology-wise. I’ve actually recived a good amount of interest around the .NET API from a number of clients and even put together several Site Studio/ASP.NET demos. The integration of the two is a little tricky, but you can get the full editor functionality out on an ASP.NET form. This was all prior to the SS 10GR4 release as well, which from my initial tinkering provides quite a few new services around editing and preview(all of which are undocumented, so you have to look at the services file in the component for the list).

I’ve also been doing some work with ALUI…now known as WCI(Web Center Interaction).  ALUI is really my favorite of the Oracle portals(though that could be how often I’ve been running in to it as of late).  From what we’re hearing in Oracle circles UCM will provide content management to all of the WebCenter portals, but the feeling is that ALUI will provide the most functionality and seems to be the one all the demos are being run on.  Please note that I could be totally off on that assessment as Oracle tends to use the word “WebCenter” as a catchall phrase for every product, so it often gets confusing about what product you’re talking about.

It’s a bit of a hobbie but I’ve also been writing some ISAPI and Apache filters.  Most of my projects have been URL-rewriters, which is about the simplest thing you can do in a filter, but I really find them fun to code.  Unless you’re working with IIS7 writing a filter for either web server requires some C code, which is not a language I work in very often.  Really the only thing I do in C is code web security filters for UCM which is really all based on a sample project that takes all the trickery out of the task.  I’ll probably post a couple of my samples soon even though they’re not exactly content management related.  

Plans for ’09

Despite the bad economy and there’s actually a lot to be excited about when it comes to content management and more specifically Oracle.  I’m not sure how R&D budgets are being affected by the downturn, but it’s pretty clear Oracle had quite a few items in the pipe before things started slowing down.  All of that said, here are some of things I’m hoping to write about this year.

1. Oracle’s recent release of Site Studio 10g4 will have some major benefits and changes to how we approach and when we can do when implementing a WCM project.  I’ve been working with some of it’s new features now for the past week or so and I’m already really, really impressed with what it can do.

2. The hodgepodge of Portals and applications all labeled “WebCenter”.  Most of my portal related posts have to do with capabilities and theory, but nothing all that tangible.  I’ll hopefully be release some samples soon.

3. CMIS.  I haven’t heard a lot about it lately, but it’s still out out there.  Last I checked there hasn’t been much of an update though Alfresco did release a connector for their CMS.

4. More .NET….There’s a lot of interest in anything UCM and .NET.

Ok that’s it.  Thanks to everyone who sent me a “where are you” email, hopefully there won’t be any more extended blogging breaks.

The Questions

Open WCM – Word on the street is that it’s close, very close actually.  In fact I think they may just be waiting for a release date.  When I arrived actually I heard it was not being demoed, but then shortly before leaving I found out it actually was on the demo grounds…doh!

ALUI – When I headed out to OpenWorld what I was hearing was that ALUi would be bundled with UCM.  That unfortunatly is not true.  There is however now a WebCenter suite, which when purchased, has licnesing for ALUI as well as a stripped down version of UCM.  The interesting thing though is that with the WebCenter suite you actually get your choice of portal; WebCenter, ALUI, WebLogic…doesn’t matter the suite gives you licensing for all of them. 

Though I like and have been mostly interested in ALUI, if there was one BEA product that Oracle seemed most interested in, it would have to be Ensamble.  Ensamble came up in just about every session I attended, in addition to the off the cuff discussions in the demo grounds and end of day activities.

My questions around WebCenter were really answered by the ALUI question.  WebCenter is still a portal, however now all the BEA portals(as well as some of the other products) can be licensed as part of the WebCenter suite.  Oracle has plans for all the portals, but strategically it’s WebCenter that they want to lead with long term.

Billy’s book – Got a copy…Got two actually as well as catching thier presentation, which was the best of the conference in my opinion.  I’ll be giving it a read and a review in the next few weeks so check back for that.

Conclusions

I really had a great time out at OpenWorld.  I had a great chance to meet many of you who I normally only talk to online as well as learn a thing or two about what those clever UCM folks are planning for the next year.

Ensamble – The session I did catch yesterday, “The art of the Mash”, was pretty interesting.  The presentation centered around the concept of enterprise mash-ups and specifically how they are implemented using Ensamble, the former BEA product I talked about yesterday.  The big thing I got out of the session was an overview of the security features in Enamble.  It’s pretty interesting actually, I would have assumed it ran in just a simple SSO model, where authenticatoin was handled by ensamble, which then passes the user’s id down to the app for authorisation.  Though it does support that, it also has a number of other trickes for dealing with application that have atypical set ups.

The Demo Of The Day

The name is a bit long but it makes a lot of sense when you dig in to the details.  What this is is the realization of something the UCM folks were talking about doing at last year’s OpenWorld, integrating Real Time Decisioning in to UCM to create targeting and personalization.

The demo, which basically selected an appropriate banner ad to display as we surfed a site studio web site, uses all information available to decide which ad to show.  For anonymous users that may be just their location based on IP, perhaps their browser or operating system.  For authenticated users that could also include data from their UCM profile, or if say Siebel is configured your entire profile and user history.

What’s also cool is that the configuration can learn on it’s own.  You don’t have to figure out whether your mac users are going to respond better to one piece of content than your PC ones.  Real Time Decisioning will figure that out for you, adapt to market changes and allow you to run tests to see how users respond.

Where it goes beyond being just a really powerful personalization engine though is when you factor in the “Multichannel” word in the title.  With this set up a user could theoretically log in to your web site, search for something on your web site and then perhaps call you.  If your call center is also using Real Time Decisioning(what it was originally designed for) the operator could automatically be alerted to what the caller was looking for, or even better yet, predict what the operator might want to give the caller when they get on the phone.  All of this would happen seamlessly and would adapt over time autonomously.

It’s sort like a big brother, only a really nice one that’s trying to help you out.

Aqualogic User Interaction

I twittered on this quite a bit during the session, but I had the opportunity to catch the strategy and vision for Web Center User Interaction.  The “User Interaction” part of the title is what interested me the most.  Whenever you see those two worlds(along with web center), you’re usually talking about the product formerly known as AquaLogic.

I am a pretty big AquaLogic fan.  First off many of my clients use User Interaction, which automatically makes me a bit partial.  Second though, I really like the architecture and what it’s designed to do.  ALUI has a number of features, but if I was to sum up basically what it “did” in nutshell is;  it allows you to tunnel other, non-portal, web applications as services.  Those services can then be surfaced as portlets in the container.  No java, no 168, no web parts…point it at your application and go.

The neat thing about that design though is that those portlets can be configured to render asyncronously, basically using AJAX.  Fundamentally once you have that ability the portal container becomes unessecary, you can remote-script your portlets(really non-portal web applications) on to just about any web page.  That’s the principle behind the ALUI ensamble product, which was known as an “Enterprise Mashup” application. 

Oracle appears to have big plans for Ensamble and is planning on using is as what they called a “UI Service Bus” with Web Center.  Basically allowing them to drag and drop various web applications, tunneled through ALUI or Web Center services on to thier Web Center pages or really any web application.  In fact in the demo they dropped an application on to an IPhone.

Billy and Raimonds

Oracle has given me a ridiculously large blogger badge to carry around with me this week.  I think it’s so presenters and other people know a member of the media(hehe) is around when they’re speaking.  I have to admit that it makes me a bit self-concious, but actually we’ve used it to get our current seats spack dab in the center of the “blogger” section.

My enormous blogger badge

That’s great you have nice seats, but what about the keynote?

The theme of OpenWorld this year, or at least one of the themes, is going green.  So far we’ve heard from the mayor of San Francisico, Gavin Newsome as well as Ed Begley Jr.  They talked about some of the environmental accomplishments San Francisco as well as some of the challenges we have throughout the world.  Sort of a serious theme, but good speaches nevertheless.

Mary Matalin Rocks the House

Right now we are hearing from Mary Matalin and I assume we will hear from her husband James Carville who is sitting nearby shortly.  She started off pretty well, lots of clever funny stuff about how she is different than her husband, but sounds like she’s on an MSNBC panel right now.

Carville is AWESOME

James Carville

James Carville is speaking now and no offense to Mary Matalin, but a much, much better speaker.  He’s a very funny and animated fellow.  Carville’s primary theme is a sort of amazement of how fast things are happening and changing in the US right now.

Very funny line…”The central point of this campaign is: What are these candidates doing at 3 o’clock in the morning?”

Carville is done…Question and answer time.  I have to say I felt that both speeches left me feeling a little on the depressed side.  It appears our country may have some problems.

Good question on what they think about the Comedy Central satire shows like John Stewart and Steven Cobert.  Apparently James Carville is a fan of TheOnion.com.

So I have to admit that the cute, funny banter between Mary and James isn’t all that funny any more.  I feel like I am at dinner with the couple that can’t stop arguing.

Ok they’re done.  We’re off to the blogger’s party at The Thirsty Bear.

I am really looking forward to meeting some of you out there.  I just checked coreContentOnly.com and it appears Jason Stortz will be around.  Should be fun to meet another UCM blogger.

Also like last year I will be traveling with fellow Ironworker Woody Carlisle.

See Woody at OpenWorld

What questions do you have as you head out?

Oracle has been extremely active this year, in general, and with regards to UCM.  I have quite a few questions and while I hope to get quite a few answered, I also expect to walk away with even more as they seem to still be in quite a transition state still with BEA and more specifically AquaLogic.

1.  Open WCM – Tell me ALL about it.  Last year and actually throughout this year, we’ve seen a couple code examples of how it may work and what some future architectures may look like.  I’d really love to get a look at it if they have anything more tangible available and potentially an update in the release date.

2.  ALUI – We’re hearing a lot about the portal formerly known as PlumTree.  Before Oracle even acquired BEA I would have argued that it was the hottest portal product on the market(though many argue against me).  We’re seeing quite a bit of work tying ALUI with UCM and of course it appears that they will be bundled together now very soon.

3. Web Center – Last year I thought of this product mostly as a Portal Framework, now it appears to be much more.  ALUI seems to have been worked in as a front end for it, which makes the whole thing gets a little gray for me.  Oracle has a strategy here, I think I need to just understand it a little better.  I am looking forward to Eric Marcoux’s sessions, which should help shed some light.

4. Where can I get a copy of Billy’s book?  If it’s there, I am coming hope with one.

That’s it for the pre-trip prep.  Check back tomorrow for an update on the conference kick off.