[opencms-dev] opencms as frontoffice

[M Butcher]

Valerio,

Valerio Ferrucci wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm new to opencms and I have a simple question:
> 
> I already have a (proprietary) backoffice system that I use to enter 
> data in my database (as of today, mysql).
> 
> Is it possible to use opencms only to publish these data on the Web?

Yes, but it would require creating custom Content Definitions, which are 
fairly difficult to implement (each CD requires a significant amount of 
custom Java code).

> Does opencms expect data in the db to be structured in a certain way or 
> generic database tables can be accessed?

By default, yes -- it has its own database schema for "native" 
documents. You can extend this through Content Definitions, but that is 
a big task.

OpenCms excels at handling the content management processes -- creating, 
editing, and publishing Web content -- but it is not really designed to 
be a generic portal to any data source.

Matt