Following the initial introduction of the Content Management Interoperability Spec (CMIS) draft and reactions from Open Text and Alfresco, Day Software didn’t lag behind and responded to the proposed industry standard. Day thinks that it’s good having a standard that functionally matches on a protocol level to what JCR (JSR170/283) specifies on an API level for Java.CMSWire had a chance to chat with Day’s CTO David Nüscheler, and here’s what we found out.
Day’s Take on CMIS
According to Nüscheler, Day sees this new initiative as a good way to further fortify enterprise content management solutions. Day would be happy to contribute to the specification, because it validates its own standardization efforts and leadership in creation of Java standards over the past several years. So far, Day’s involvement has been limited to reactions and readiness to implement, as heavy weight giants and originators of CMIS -- EMC, Microsoft and IBM -- rock the boat. “The three of the largest players in the ECM market... are well-qualified to initiate a protocol specification that is complementary to a programming API like JCR,” says Nüscheler.
Day’s Existing Standards
Day Software is not new to the standards creation business. In 2001, Day started the specification process of JCR -- Java Content Repository -- standards. Then, it was driven by the lack of an industry standard and high demand for non-proprietary content repositories for all content management applications, including Web Content Management, Digital Asset Management and Social Collaboration. To keep Day’s customers happy, the company has created several content repository standards for Java technology API: JSR 170, JCR and JSR 283. Then, the CRX was born. Through involvement with JCR and open source standards around Apache Jackrabbit, Day started selling fully-compliant content repository called CRX. This pre-existing history with standards explains why CMIS is of interest to Day: JSR 170, for example, is not supported by all Enterprise CMS vendors and is not programming language neutral. According to Day, CMIS is not competing with JSR 170, but merely mirrors it due to its platform- and language-agnostic nature.As dutifully noted by CMS Watch, the programmers use APIs and not protocols, so it’s hard to compare HTTP, for example, with the Java Servlet spec.
Day’s Thoughts on Alfresco’s Involvement in CMIS
While we were happy to see at least one Open Source CMS vendor participate in the development of the upcoming industry standard, Nüscheler thinks that “As usual, Alfresco is making a lot of marketing noise about implementations despite that it has not even made it into a standards body yet.” And this is when to date, Alfresco, being a CMIS draft contributing member, has accomplished the following for CMIS:* Support for the CMIS REST and Web Services bindings allowing client applications to connect to, navigate, read and create content against the Alfresco content repository * Support for the CMIS Query Language providing SQL-like querying of the repository including location, properties, and full-text * A CMIS Test Suite to allow compliance compatibility testing against any CMIS compliant REST Binding And this is not all. Alfresco also plans to offer CMIS webinars and tutorials. What you say, Day?
Day’s Plans on CMIS Implementation
Both Alfresco and Open Text have already dabbled into the implementation of the CMIS specification. Alfresco released the first CMIS implementation with the latest version of Alfresco Labs 3. While Open Text partnered up with SAP AG to create a CMIS prototype.Day plans to “definitely look into the possibility of implementing CMIS in a generic fashion” by turning all JCR compliant repositories, such as Apache Jackrabbit and CRX, into fully-compliant CMIS repositories.” As with other vendors and CMIS players, we are not talking about a complete API “make-over,” as there is a slim chance that all Enterprise CMS capabilities will be ever exposed through the APIs, leaving about 20% of the code to remain in the Enterprise CMS proprietary interfaces.Since the CMIS spec excludes Web Content Management as a possible implementation scenario, Day’s Web CMS -- Communique -- will not be affected.
About the Author
Irina Guseva is a seasoned enterprise content technologist with 15+ years of experience, with roots in various types of media including print, radio, TV and digital media. She specializes in web content management, digital asset management, enterprise content management, digital marketing and customer experience management. Connect with Irina Guseva:
