13 Oct 2009
Screencast: Drupal Open Atrium with Alfresco CMIS
I recorded a quick screencast of a simple integration we did to show Open Atrium leveraging Alfresco as a formal document repository via CMIS. This leverages the CMIS Alfresco module we developed and released on Drupal.org.
As I point out in the screencast, there’s not much to the integration from a technical standpoint. Open Atrium is Drupal and the CMIS module already has a CMIS repository browser. So, all we had to do was expose the module as a “feature”, which is something Open Atrium uses to bundle modules together that create a given chunk of functionality.
Readers familiar with Alfresco Share (screencast 1, screencast 2) will instantly recognize the Open Atrium concepts. Instead of “sites” Atrium uses “groups”. Instead of “pages” or “tools”, Atrium uses “features”. The overall purpose, self-provisioned team-based collaboration, is the same and many of the tools/features are the same (blog, calendar, member directory). I’m not advocating using one over the other–as usual, what works best for you depends on a lot of factors. I just thought Atrium provided a nice way to show yet another example of Drupal and Alfresco together (post).
[...] Screencast: Drupal Open Atrium with Alfresco CMIS | ecmarchitect.com (tags: Drupal, OpenAtrium, Alfresco, contentmanagement) [...]
links for 2009-10-13 | Glorified Monkey
October 13th, 2009 at 10:02 ampermalink
Is your screencast up? I don’t understand what I’m missing, but every time I click on the link that you provide, the page on optaros.com has a blank spot where the video should be. I’d really like to see the screencast – what am I doing wrong?
Lucas Weeks
October 14th, 2009 at 9:20 ampermalink
Lucas,
I haven’t heard of any other problems. The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that maybe your Flash plugin isn’t up-to-date?
Jeff
jpotts
October 15th, 2009 at 9:18 ampermalink
Promising
Can you tell us more on how you did the Open Atrium – Alfresco integration ?
Fred
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:10 ampermalink
In a nutshell, the integration relies on the Drupal CMIS and CMIS Alfresco modules. All my colleague, Eric Shea, did was to wrap the CMIS Repository Browser functionality that comes with the module with an Open Atrium Feature. Actually, Features are not just for Atrium–they are a Drupal module. Here’s the link: http://drupal.org/project/features
I think we’re going to get the feature wrapper added to the CMIS module or make it available somewhere. I’m not sure where it is on the roadmap, though. If it is absolutely critical, let me know and I’ll send you the files in their current state.
Jeff
jpotts
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:15 pmpermalink
jeff – could you send me these files please ?
Dave
December 17th, 2009 at 8:48 ampermalink
@Dave, they are on their way. Enjoy.
jpotts
December 18th, 2009 at 10:57 ampermalink
This is a fantastic integration. I’m not having much luck trying to build the feature though. Could I please have a copy of these files?
Shaun
December 18th, 2009 at 8:33 pmpermalink
@Shaun,
Done!
Jeff
jpotts
December 24th, 2009 at 3:40 pmpermalink
We would love to start using this feature and are willing to help some with development. Is there a place were you can post the files for the community to work on? github, google code, etc?
Chris Rowe
January 3rd, 2010 at 8:53 pmpermalink
Yes, definitely. Would love the help. I’ll send you an email to discuss logistics.
Jeff
jpotts
January 5th, 2010 at 9:45 ampermalink
@Dave, Done.
Jeff
jpotts
January 6th, 2010 at 9:51 ampermalink
Hi Jeff, your blog is very informative. Is Optaros looking at adding workflow to OpenAtrium as mentioned in the webcast? We are researching Alfresco integration to process software such as Intalio. Could I receive a copy of these files as well?
Thanks!
Randall
Randall
January 18th, 2010 at 6:08 pmpermalink
No, we are not actively looking at adding workflow to OpenAtrium. The module we wrote for Drupal-Alfresco integration uses CMIS. CMIS is a content-centric API and does not include workflow in its scope. So any calls to the workflow engine (e.g., to get a task list) would have to be to Alfresco’s REST API. That’s not a big deal, it just means the implementation is no longer pure CMIS. So, right now, although we’d gladly do this kind of integration for a client, our open source efforts focused on CMIS.
Jeff
jpotts
January 20th, 2010 at 9:49 ampermalink
Thanks for the informative and inspirational screencast… I’ve been looking for this kind of integration actually working. I’ve been using Sharepoint and gradually migrating to Drupal + some kind of DMS (I guess Alfresco is one of the options). Recently I installed Open Atrium and am trying to figure out the ins and outs of how it works.. I have no idea for now how to build this kind of Feature… I have a vague idea of CMIS but for now it’s beyond my ability to make an Open Atrium-compatible feature for this integration. Could I share the file and try using it, too?? Thanks..
alvin_biophile
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:50 ampermalink
Yep. You’ll need (1) the Drupal CMIS API module available at Drupal.org and (2) some files that expose the repository browser to Atrium as a feature. I’ll email you (2).
Jeff
jpotts
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:44 pmpermalink
Hi Jeff, can you please email me the files that expose the repository browser to Atrium as a feature?
Dimitar Bakardzhiev
February 28th, 2010 at 9:49 ampermalink
Dimitar — Sent! Enjoy. Jeff
jpotts
February 28th, 2010 at 12:23 pmpermalink
Could you please send me those files? Muchas gracias.
Miguel
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:03 pmpermalink
Hi Jeff,
This is really great stuff. We have installed Alfresco and OAb5. Things are working fine, the only thing missing is the feature to expose the repos in the groups. Could I have a copy of the files?
Cheers, Erik
Erik van den Heuvel
March 8th, 2010 at 1:48 pmpermalink
Miguel & Erik — Sent. Good luck!
Jeff
jpotts
March 9th, 2010 at 6:10 pmpermalink
Hi, thanks for the great screencast! Could i also have a copy of the files?
Best, Fredrik
frega
March 16th, 2010 at 11:51 ampermalink
Hi Jeff,
I know I am repetitive but I need the feature too so … could you please sent me the files that expose the repository browser to Atrium as a feature?
Thanks a lot
Alex
Alex
March 19th, 2010 at 12:54 pmpermalink
Hi Jeff,
Cold you please send me files that expose the repository browser as a feature for Open Atrium?
Thank you!
P.S.: If this is my second request please ignore it!
I apologyze …
Alex
March 20th, 2010 at 6:59 ampermalink
All,
I have posted the files here. I hope someone will clean this up and post it somewhere for the benefit of the entire community. I simply don’t have time to do it at the moment.
Jeff
jpotts
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:19 ampermalink
[...] have been asking for the files we used to integrate Alfresco CMIS with Drupal Open Atrium (See ecmarchitect.com blog post). I’ve happily mailed those to whomever asked. I’ve had the intention of testing them [...]
Drupal Open Atrium and Alfresco CMIS files | ecmarchitect.com
March 22nd, 2010 at 9:49 ampermalink
May I try your files as well please.
I just installed Drupal 6 and Alfresco 3.2r2 are these supported?
chrisw
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:16 pmpermalink
chrisw,
See this blog post: http://ecmarchitect.com/archives/2010/03/22/1141
The latest version of the CMIS API module does work with 3.2r2. I don’t think the atrium integration works with the latest version of atrium, however.
Jeff
jpotts
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:26 pmpermalink
Could I install this over an existing Drupal install?
chrisw
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:26 pmpermalink
chrisw,
The OpenAtrium distribution comes with a Drupal distribution embedded in it. I don’t know whether you can add Atrium to an existing Drupal install or not.
Jeff
jpotts
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:28 pmpermalink
Thanks, I am just looking to see how Atrium connects to Alfresco. I am missing something it the Drupal admin?
chrisw
April 2nd, 2010 at 6:03 pmpermalink