Can we sync multiple instances of Alfresco CMS?

rishabh · ‎3 Apr 2017

Also, if I’m using the multiple instances of your CMS then there is a possibility to sync my content whenever we want or at some specific time? Means, Can we sync multiple instances of Alfresco CMS?

"I've a use case :- In which I want to update some content at my intranet through Alfresco CMS. And then after some time or after some user action, I want to sync my content over cloud Alfresco CMS that is present on the internet.
It means I'm using both self-hosted CMS and cloud CMS for my site and this depends on the location.
In some location I'm using cloud CMS and rest of the location I'm using self-hosted Alfresco
then these content will sync with each other?"

afaust · ‎3 Apr 2017

Next time, please consolidate your questions in a single post instead of creating multiple ones that are related but do not reference each other.

As I indicated in my response to the first part, Alfresco is not a WCM that is used to build web sites. It is an ECM platform focused on collaborative DMS (using out-of-the-box Share UI and services). Alfresco provides replication services that can be used to transfer content to another Alfresco system or a file-system based environment, and there can be event- or schedule-based processing. So - technically - yes, your use case could be covered. But again, Alfresco is not a WCM system.

rishabh · ‎4 Apr 2017

Axel Faust : First of all thanks for your response.

I'm not using any CMS as WCM. I want to use it as Headless CMS. I'm again clearing the requirement of using multiple instances of your CMS. I want to retrieve the static content from your on-premises solution for my website. That on-premises solution is used at some specific area or on my intranet. On the other hand for the worldwide use, I want a cloud instance by which I can get all static content of my website.

Now on the top of these slave instances, there is a Master instance that server data for both Cloud and On-premises solution. (I'm asking about the hybrid CMS) -- "I believe that this is clearing my requirement to use Hybrid CMS".

Now if any slave instances (ex- on-premises) disconnect through the network or get offline. And after that when it will back again online, it will sync with its all other slave instances? Means there is any bi-directional sync between all instances?

afaust · ‎4 Apr 2017

I am not an Alfresco employee (most people on this platform aren't, except those marked with a special icon - the Alfresco logo), so "your CMS" is not really appropriate to use.

Can you please clarify what you want to do with the "CMS"? Is it purely intended to provide content for web pages? What kind of static assets are you talking about? When you say "headless CMS" I still strongly feel you are talking about WCM...

There is no concept of master-slave with multiple Alfresco systems that use either replication and/or cloud sync features. Each system can be both a "sender" and a "receiver" of data. So it is bi-directional.

Again, when we talk about Alfresco Cloud we are talking about a commercial offering hosted by Alfresco available only to Enterprise customers. You can at any time use any of the Alfresco editions and deploy it yourself to a cloud hosting service, but then it will not support the cloud sync features.

For the cloud sync there is even conflict resolution since the content may be changed on both on-premise and cloud. For the replication there is no such resolution since typically any content replicated to another system will be read-only on the target system.

rishabh · ‎4 Apr 2017

Yes, I want to use it to provide the content for Website (but this is not my only task with CMS). I want to store Images (Employee picture) and the description (Employee detail) of that image in the CMS, and whenever required I'll retrieve that image from the CMS to display on my website.

Is the above feature is not supported by Alfresco? Is, Alfresco ECM (enterprise content management) not include that type of content?

Now, If Alfresco provide the above then my query is related to Sync is mentioned at below link:-

synchornize

Hybrid cloud — Synchronize content and processes between Alfresco on-premises and the Alfresco in the cloud

Please explain this.

afaust · ‎4 Apr 2017

Alfresco will support something as simple as storing images and descriptions. If that is the only use case though, Alfresco might be completely over-engineered for this.

As I already explained: With the Alfresco Enterprise subscription you also get a "network" on the Alfresco Cloud service and can synchronise content between on-premise and cloud. This is not available for the Alfresco Community Edition, but nothing is stopping you from deploying Alfresco Community edition to your own cloud server.

rishabh · ‎4 Apr 2017

Let me clear first that I'll definitely use Enterprise edition of Alfresco for my business. But to learn Alfresco CMS, I'll go with the free version or community version. Once I'm enough capable to integrate Alfresco in my business then I'll go to buy Enterprise edition.

Now in Enterprise edition, I'll get both on-premises and cloud and further sync between both. I've below question further:-

1. Can I retrieve my content from both on-premises or cloud, according to some specific criteria (My criteria depend on location that means - for this location I want to use on-premises and for rest locations I want to use cloud)?

2. Is this sync all my content (no restriction and no bar), whatever I want to sync? or it is restricted with only some specific thing? Means we want to sync all data, all folder, all files etc. Security Restriction allows us only but not by Alfresco, means if we want to sync all data then ok or if we want some specific data (like 5 files, 4 folder and only images can sync) then ok, all depend on us.

3. Can Alfresco use as other CMS uses? Means I can store any type of content (like images, text, description, any type of lists, and so on) for my site, as I can do with other CMS (like Magnolia, Contentful, Wordpress and so on)? Also further can I access these content through API?

4. The addition of the content management as mentioned in point 3, can I use this as Document management, and other Enterprise management features?

5. Please answer my previous question also, I'm not able to find the answer of that:-

Is Alfresco CMS support below:-

Caching?

Multi-language support or Localisation?

Backup?

API-driven?

afaust · ‎4 Apr 2017

If you are considering using Alfresco Enterprise I would strongly encourage you to find a local partner / service provider and discuss your use case with them. Everything you will get as information here is provided solely by private people on potentially incomplete information (whatever you decide to share)...

1) It is completely up to you for what type of content you are calling the on-premise or cloud system. The criteria need to be handled by the client accessing Alfresco, in this case your web site logic would need to include that.

2) Synchronisation is only performed on the subset of data that you define to be synchronised. You can only synchronise documents / folder structures and their associated metadata. It is not posible to synchronise permissions, user info and other data (e.g. audit).

3) As I already said, Alfresco is an ECM platform with a collaborative DMS focus. As such it can store any kind of file and its associated metadata. It is not a CMS/WCM like the systems you list - so it is not really appropriate to compare these with Alfresco...

4) As I already said, Alfresco is an ECM platform with a collaborative DMS focus. DMS stands for document management, so this question is already answered. Of course you can use the document management features...

5) I already answered this question in your other post. Alfresco does support caching (in terms of providing HTTP cache hints and having internal caches to avoid costly DB access for frequently used data items), multi-language (but the support in the UI is extremely limited) and access via various APIs. As with any system, the data that Alfresco manages can be backed up using a standard procedure. I honestly don't know any system that does not support backup...

rishabh · ‎4 Apr 2017

Thanks for your help. This is very useful to us.