RedHat CCM
RedHat CCM Web Site
Everyone is familiar with RedHat of Linux fame. RedHat has now
incorporated the ArsDigita content management solution into
their book of offerings, now called the RedHat Content and
Collaboration Management (CCM) Software Solutions. CCM is
obviously a content management solution at heart, but because it
offers many portal-like features, and because many portal
projects focus on delivering content only, this is certainly a
product worth taking a look at.
The documentation, and this is one of the advantages of RedHat
software, is good and detailed. In addition, RedHat offers
support and consulting if you should get stuck using their
products. The installation documentation covers TomCat 3 & 4,
Resin and WebSphere. All instructions assume you are using
Linux, or at least Unix. Which is not to say it won't run on
Windows, you're just on your own. No support available to get
you up and running.
Customization of CCM is possible. The development docs are
fairly extensive. Again, this is primarily a content management
tool, and though I could find portlet-type classes in the
Javadocs, there wasn't anything specifically about developing
portlets in the documentation. That said, ArsDigita was around
for a while and the application itself is quite large at this
point in time. A significant Java library powers CCM. XML/XSTL
are used on the front-end, which is always a plus, especially
for content management.
The feature list is quite extensive and includes user/group
management, work flows and support for multiple languages. Of
course the content repository is the core aspect of this package
and something not included, to this extent, in any of the other
solutions. The XSLT front-end will also allow for
VoiceXML, WML or other XML displays. If you need a portal
solution with less on the back-end and an integrated content
management solution then this package is worth evaluating. Keep
in mind that only the evaluation version is free.
Conclusion
I would recommend any of these portal solutions. Which one you
choose will depend primarily on what you specifically need.
jPorta offers a simple solution that is easy for JSP developers
to implement. Both Jetspeed and Liferay offer fairly
robust J2EE solutions that will offer a full portal framework.
Liferay contains a great feature set and good documentation.
Jetspeed also has a fairly good feature set and will support
JSR-168. Finally, the RedHat solution is a good one for any
company who wants the look-and-feel of a portal and a content
manager to back it up.
Drew Falkman is the author of the JRun Web Application Construction Kit and co-author (with Ben Forta) of Reality ColdFusion: J2EE Integration, both published by Macromedia Press. Over the past 6 years, Drew has developed over 150 Web applications in all sizes using ColdFusion and Java. Currently Drew consults, speaks at events, writes for numerous publications, and teaches courses at Portland State University. His latest project through his consulting company, Veraison LLC, was a real-time cattle auction using Flash Remoting and Flash Communication Server. In addition, Drew is a member of Team Macromedia, a certified ColdFusion Developer and a certified Macromedia instructor.
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