What's new in Content Server 7.6 (Doc ID 1444672.1)

Content Server 7.6 introduces new functionality for developers and administrators to streamline the process of building and maintaining Content Server web sites. The release includes a new set of developer tools to easily create, edit, and debug Content Server assets as well as work effectively with distributed development teams. In addition, a number of new system tools are provided to support site maintenance.

 

While Content Server 7.6 is a version release, it is not to the same scope and magnitude as our typical version release. For example, this is not the same type of upgrade that was required to Content Server 7.5 release from Content Server 7.0 release. The Content Server 7.6 roll-up procedure is very similar to previous CS 7.5 patch roll-ups.

 

 

Content Server 7.6 includes new development tools and capabilities to help streamline the process of developing Content Server sites. These enhancements are described below.

 

• Content Server Developer Tools (CSDT): CSDT provides tools that simplify code development and also enable developers to work within local Content Server environments. Code can be synchronized with that from a larger team after local development and testing is completed. CSDT consists of the following features and capabilities:

• Eclipse plug-in – A FatWire plug-in for the Eclipse IDE makes it possible for developers to create and edit Content Server assets including Templates, CSElements and SiteEntries. Automatic tag completion is also available for Content Server tags and APIs. Developers can troubleshoot Content Server related code with standard IDE features such as breakpoints and directly preview templates without opening a separate web browser window.

• Command-line tools – A set of powerful command-line tools for advanced developers to create Content Server resource packages for distribution to other Content Servers. The tools also support bi-directional synchronization of resources between Content Server and the Eclipse workspace. There is built-in intelligence to compute and resolve all dependencies of assets.

• Synchronization with source code versioning systems –CSDT enables integration with versioning systems for teams with multiple developers. This also allows exchange of resources between multiple Content Server instances.

• Custom Asset Filters: There is now a capability to extend Content Server to call out to external processes or scripts (filters) to perform post processing on an asset. This is an extension of the Content Server out-of-the-box Flex Filters, allowing creation of custom written filters that can be invoked when the asset is saved. Examples of usage include making updates to asset attributes or creating another artifact from the asset.

• Customizable Single-Sign on Support (CSSO)–  A new customization layer included in the FatWire WEM Framework authentication system, which is built over the Central Authentication Service (CAS). The CSSO facility contains authentication extensions that can be used to create a custom SSO solution, without modifying the CAS configuration. This enables authentication to FatWire products through a central authentication source that is supporting multiple applications. Once authenticated through CAS, a user will not have to explicitly login to the FatWire interface.

• Site plan support in REST – The REST interface now has an additional call to support returning site plans from Content Server.  This provides a starting point to recursively traverse the site and make the site content available for other applications.

 

 

Content Server 7.6 includes a number of features and enhancements to facilitate maintenance and installation of Content Server.

 

• Administrator Tools: A summary of new administrator tools available from the FatWire Advanced UI is below:

• Log Analysis Tools: A new log analyzer provides access to production side logs from a remote Advanced UI. It is possible to do regular expression searches of logs, view or tail a specified number of lines, and view log content through paginated views.

• System Tools: A number of tools are provided to gather information about the Content Server environment and performance. These tools include reporting key configuration and property file contents, jar versions, system variables,  database row counts, database query times, thread information, file system performance test results, and much more.

• Cache Tools: Tools are available for searching through caches by page and/or key, viewing cache inventory, reporting on cache hits and misses, and more.

• Dynamic log configuration: Content Server now supports the ability to change log levels without restarting the server.

• Cluster support Installation of Central Authentication Service (CAS) : Content Server will now automatically install CAS on web application server clusters for supported application servers. Therefore, manual installations per node are no longer necessary.

 

• Asset Cache: Content Server 7.6 now includes a cache for Content Server assets. This cache is based off of the Terracota Ehcache framework which was introduced for page caching in Content Server 7.5 patch 5. The AssetCache improves rendering performance of uncached pagelets within the website and management interfaces.