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Open Text Continues Quilting Exercise With Latest Web CMS Release

By Irina Guseva  | Published Jul 8, 2009

Open Text Web Solutions 10

The Open Text Web Solutions group, formerly known as RedDot Web Content Management (WCM), has just put out a new and significant release of their mid-range Web CMS product. Yes, Vignette (when the acquisition is finalized) will take place alongside Web Solutions version 10 in this WCM quilt.

This update brings improvements to the technology stack, more Enterprise CMS and SAP integration patchwork and an updated user interface. But OTEX (news, site) didn’t stop there. Let's see what else they've done.

We spoke with Marci Maddox, Open Text’s director for global product marketing, to get the details.

Shift in the UI

It’s a good time for Open Text Web Solutions to put in some effort into improving the GUI. For one, the product really needed that. Secondly, the competition is not sleeping, and UI enhancements seem to be a common trend lately: take Day's CQ5, for example.

The new, “intelligent” UI features a dashboard (a la your iGoogle page) that can contain multiple widgets based on any part of the WCM application. The dashboard is “where content editors live and breathe” and is customizable. Check out the slide bar (on the right)  and control panels.

otex ws dashboard 2009.png

Open Text Web Solutions Dashboard

In Web Solutions 10, users will see changes to Open Text SmartEdit (where you will still see those familiar red dots) in three stages of content management tasks — content entry, workflow and content search. There’s AJAX for less clicking, contextual menus on right-click/hover-over, drag&drop and a reduced number of dialog boxes.

otex smartedit.png

Open Text SmartEdit

The UI is permissions-based on per user basis and can be customized according to various profiles. It is shipped in a minimalistic gray scale approach, but can be customized according to organizations’ brand colors.

Updates to the Technology

On the architecture side, RedDot CMS and RedDot LiveServer are still being leveraged. Remaining true to Microsoft, Web Solutions 10 is based on the latest .NET technology and application architecture.

According to Maddox, Open Text is seeing many productivity enhancements now, including about a 70% increase in processing times due to optimized memory management, upgraded multi-processor and multi-threading.

The new UI is another contributor to better performance, largely due to ASP and AJAX capabilities.

Platform support for Microsoft SQL 2008 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is also part of the release.

More ECM, DAM and SAP Integrations

Open Text, understandably, continues to weave its multiple platforms into a coherent patchwork. ECM, DAM and the SAP NetWeaver Portal are some of the touch points.

Integration With Open Text Digital Asset Management

In February, the vendor announced its integration between Web Solutions and Artesia for pulling assets from the DAM system and placing them on a particular page.

Taking it further, the company now allows external users to search for an asset within the DAM repository, even if it hasn’t been published, by giving them a “read-only” view into the DAM repository.

In a later phase, Open Text Web Solutions plans to include user-generated content into the DAM fold as well. Look for that towards the end of this year.

Paying Attention to Search

In Web Solutions 10, you will see search approached from three different angles:

  1. Search within the CMS with new capability for quick search, which outputs search results pages that are sortable. Maddox refers to this functionality as the ”new powerful way to see information.”
  2. Third-party search applications integrations (like GSA, FAST, Autonomy and Lucene), where Web Solutions can index the content into those search apps using new search integration APIs.
  3. Open Text is known for integrating with SAP TREX search for federated search. Continuing to run merrily with SAP on many different tracks, OTEX exported the same type of indexing as for third-part search engines for SAP NetWeaver-based portals. One of the major changes is in the configuration of iViews (aka portlets) that now by default have the SmartEdit button. Previously, it used to be a less elegant pop-up window. IT should like this little addition, as it frees them from having to put tags in their portal templates.

"Deeper" ECM Integration, But no Livelink?

Fear not. Open Text Livelink ECM integration is coming as part of the integrations update release around September. Same goes for SharePoint 2010.

Integration with the recently unveiled Open Text Social Media is also in the plans, according to Maddox, who says that there’s already a “small integration” in place, but it is not a released item yet.

Shooting for Seamless Quilts

Open Text is in an interesting position of piecing together so many different systems that are either their own or were acquired. Seamless would be the ideal way for cross-system access to all relevant information.

Not many vendors have been able to deliver that seamlessness, which comes with efficiency and ease-of-use. We’ll continue to watch how Open Text does in this application quilting area.

 
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3 Reader Comments

1 | Markus — July 9, 2009 9:50 AM

Irina,
The steps Open Text has made with its new version are outstanding and they solve a lot of demands clients have made in the past.
The new interface will definitely make the editing process quicker, better and easier. No doubt about that.

But:
I am quite unhappy with the way the new Open Text WCM has been described here a couple of things are incorrect or not complete:
The RedDot CMS or now WebSolutions Management Servers core is still based on ASP.
The ASPX parts are:
Navigation Manager and
The Publisher.
I am not sure if the new AJAX functions run with ASPX or ASP but I will investigate soon.

Unfortunately nothing has significantly changed yet for the developers.

I would like to invite Marci Maddox to discuss proposals and issues regarding the developers daily business.

With more communication here we could make Open Text products even better. In the end, developers are often the ones to train the OTEX clients. So if they are happy I assure you they will find it easier to make a client happy.
And making people happy is what social media is about, right?
Best regards,
Markus
http://www.reddotcmsblog.com

2 | Irina Guseva — July 9, 2009 6:42 PM

Markus,

First of all, thanks for commenting!

No argument. This release doesn't seem to be particularly developer-friendly. While OTEX made an effort to be up-to-date MSFT platform-wise, there are no significant changes to make you and the likes happier.

I feel your pain, but don't have an "Advil" for you. Hopefully, Maddox will be able to shed more light on upcoming plans in that arena.

Not sure what you mean by "making people happy is what social media is about." 1 - You simply cannot make everyone happy. 2 - Social media has nothing to do with this release.

Even though Open Text is far from being open source and community-centric, I would agree that your feedback could be very useful to the overall product's success.

Let's see if I can get Maddox to join the convo.

Best,
Irina

3 | Marci Maddox — July 10, 2009 1:47 PM

Hi Markus

In response to your comments, this release of Open Text Web Solutions version 10 was the culmination of feedback from our customers and partners to improve the most commonly used areas of the content management system. As a developer, I know that you can appreciate the fine balance any software release must address between new features and ease of upgrade. Therefore, our approach to this release is two-fold.

First, with this release we have addressed the editor?s workspace with a new configurable start page, new Web Client frame (or chrome) and a new SmartEdit and Task management redesign. These new client interfaces are using ASPX and AJAX with new services that are running on .NET 3.5. Administrative areas like the SmartTree and Server Manager and our Asset Manager are presented within this new ASPX frame with the underlying components remaining ASP based. Initial response has been very positive and customers are eager to use the new contextual menus, drag and drop and quick navigation concepts in the new user interface.

The second core management component that we placed laser focus on with this release is the PageBuilder function - the heart of the WCM system central to the page viewing, delivery and publishing of content to multiple destinations. This Management Server component has been developed in .NET 3.5 and C# to deliver parallel page building capabilities and multithreaded processing of publishing jobs with initial testing showing performance improvements upwards of 70% (results may vary based on different hardware and project configurations). Other components of the server, like the publisher and transfer engine, have not been updated in this release. All existing .NET components in Web Solutions have also been updated to the latest .NET 3.5 framework offered by Microsoft.

There are other enhancements we have made as well, so please refer to the Release Notes or documentation for details.

Thanks,
Marci

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