General Information

Abstract

This document shall constitute a technical description of Citeck EcoS Citeck ECOS system and Alfresco system being a base for Citeck EcoSECOS. Described versions are Citeck EcoS 2ECOS2.8.1, Alfresco Community 4.2.c.

List of Abbreviations

Table 1. Abbreviations

General System Terms

Content Application Server is a Java Enterprise Edition’s software component enabling a Java applications launch and execution.

Alfresco Structure

Three-tier Structure 

Alfresco keeps three-tier architecture (Picture 1):

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The architecture described above allows to implement different types of document-focused applications, such as Document Management (DM), Web Content Management (WCM), Records Management (RM) and others.

Structure of Content Application Server

Alfresco Content Application Server is a Java web application consisting of different components. The structure of Content Application Server on the highest level is presented below (Picture 2).

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• content models;
• business processes;
• additional services for Java, JavaScript, FreeMarker;
• rules, activities and policies;
• additional web scripts (REST API).

Interaction with Adjacent Systems

Content Application Server uses adjacent systems services for its own services realization. Adjacent systems are used particularly for:

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Indexing in transaction (or atomic content indexing) permits to maintain index in current status, which is necessary in some applications. In cases when maintaining the index in current status is not necessary, the deferred indexing permits to law transaction time and therefore improve performance. Indexing in transaction is about the only advantage of Lucene. Otherwise, SOLR is highly recommended by Alfresco.

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Alfresco server acts as “Man in the middle” in NTLM usage, actually encouraging protocol vulnerability. For this reason, only the NTLM version 1 is supported. NTLM version 2 protocol is not supported in interaction with AD, as authentification through adjacent services is not needed for the NTLM protocol. Authentification protocol Kerberos is recommended for the integration into enterprise infrastructure.

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Services mentioned above are possible to function as Windows services, but Alfresco delivering does not provide for default Windows services.

Necessary Resources for Alfresco Functioning

Hardware

Alfresco System Requirements at a rough estimate are following:

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A disk space size for index (Lucene, SOLR) is calculated in the same way and is approximately 3 times less than the previous one.

Software

In Alfresco setup these services are created on Windows:

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If these ports are already used in setting up the other ports for PostgreSQL, Tomcat иVTI should be indicated. Alfresco ports are to be set in Alfresco-global.properties file. If there is a need to indicate other ports after the setting up, you can look through Component Setting Guide.

Methods of Alfresco extension and adjustment

Alfresco is distributed as WAR-file (WAR – Web Archive –Java archive format) or WAR-files which are installed on Java applications server(s) (for example, Apache Tomcat or JBoss Application Server). Usually extensions and modules are packed in the web applications, configuration elements are in the so-called shared classpath (for Tomcat this folder is called tomcat/shared).

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• Alfresco/extension/*-log4j.properties –configuration file of log4j journal;
• Alfresco/extension/subsystems/Authentication – configuration files of authentication subsystem (for example, an interaction  with MS Active Directory);
• Alfresco/extension/custom-vti* – configuration file of VTI module (SharePoint Protocol support for online editing);
• Alfresco/web-extension/share-config-custom.xml – custom configuration Share.

Alfreso Log Files (Event Log)

Alfresco log files either are in root folder Alfresco or in tomcat/bin or in file system root (Linux). It depends on the Alfresco version.  Alfresco generates one log file per one web application. It means that in standard installation three log files should be presented:

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For all these files, a rotation is set - everyday a new file is created and used, but the old files are not deleted. In order to delete old files, Alfresco and Tomcat settings must be changed.

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Citeck ECOS Add On Modules

Three-Tier Module Structure

The goal of extension modules is to add a new functionality to Alfresco system. In order to maximize a functionality’s reuse a three-tier structure is used:

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Alfresco infrastructure makes it possible to redefine a realization and configuration of general modules in more specific ones. Particularly, it is possible to redefine core and applications modules in custom module. 

Core Module Configuration and Functions

Citeck EcoS Citeck ECOS system core includes modules:

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“1st-override-” modules are intended for Alfresco files redefining. “idocs-” modules contain a basic functionality of с Citeck EcoS Citeck ECOS system core.

Citeck EcoS ECOS adds new functions to Alfresco:

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Userinterface. Various visual components improving system usability and adding functionality to Alfresco Share.

Application Module Configuration and Options

Application modules include:

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Application modules deploy sites (contracts’ site, attorneys’ site etc.) and logs in order to manage records. Application modules include model and form definition for these records, special policies and preinstalled templates’ definition, some default settings which can be redefined in custom modules.

Sync Service Description

Synchronization (sync) service is aimed at synchronizing data in different data storages such as:

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1. Source DAO receives objects for sync (either all objects or those updated after the last sync);
2. Source DAO converts these objects to Object Info;
3. Object Converter provides an according of Object Info between Source DAO and Target DAO; additional objects Object Converter can be used for some fields conversion;
4. Target DAO creates or updates objects according to the received information.
                                                                                        

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PIcture 3.  Sync configuration

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