[opencms-dev] Trying to get started ...

[Palmer, Tom]

All -

I'm in the process of trying to determine if OpenCMS will meet my needs for an upcoming project.  Frankly, I'm having trouble getting my head around the various concepts and figuring out how to do certain basic things.

At this point, my confusion centers around what OpenCMS calls 'Content Definitions'.  To me, this is what content management is all about: discrete types of content with properties (e.g. ID, title, date, author, etc) that are created and then moved through workflow and published.  These content items are then easily accessible from template (JSP) pages to display the content, search for content items, etc.

I've read section 10 in the PDF doc that talks about content definitions and it all seems to make sense - and provides hope that OpenCMS can do the kinds of things I need.  But it provides zero information on where to place these custom classes, how to register them so OpenCMS knows about them, etc.  Help?  Examples?  I've installed all the documentation modules but can't find anything pertinent.

I also don't have a good handle on the workflow capabilities.  I need to be able to enforce a strict linear workflow process for content items and other resources.  For example, after a new item is created it must be tested, after testing it must be approved by legal, after legal, it must be authorized and can then be published.  No steps can be skipped, items can be rolled back, and the people representing the various roles don't even know about the item until it appears in their queue.  Is it possible to make OpenCMS do this?

Thanks in advance -
 
Tom Palmer
Principal Consultant
USi
tom.palmer at usi.net
919.253.5937
919.253.6586 (fax)