The content-sync-example repository is offering the ability to synchronize content between environments. The extension is explicitly for cloud customers. Please note that content-sync-example is, as the name is suggesting, only ought to be an example on how a sync can be implemented, and is only covering the use case of a partial sync (partial sync is describing the functionality to synchronize only a limited amount of contents, and not a whole environment).
As mentioned in the introduction, the content-sync-example project is only offering a partial sync, but with extension points for customizations. Such a customization can be:
- Implementation of a complete environment synchronization
- Implementation for all sites of a given customer
Also see List of Open Points for limitations of current solution.
- For each remote content to be synchronized, a local content is created or an already existing local content at the same repository path is updated. The synchronization checks for matching content types in that case and skips the content, if types do not match.
- For each outgoing content reference (link list, markup, struct) in a content which is to be synchronized, a reference to a local content is created, if a local content with the correct path exists. The synchronization checks for matching content types in that case and removes the reference, if types do not match. Links between contents of the selected synchronization set are kept accordingly, of course.
- No content except those selected for synchronization are created locally. If outgoing references have no corresponding local content, the reference will be removed (see above).
Please feel free to contribute your functionality! Contribution can be achieved by Pull Requests.
To configure the content sync correctly, it is necessary to have the following data in place:
- URL to the Ingest Service.
- JWT token for the Ingest Service. In case you haven't received the JWT token yet, please create a support ticket asking for that token (support@coremedia.com).
The content-sync architecture is quite simple and inside this git repository, the following application extensions can found:
- studio-client: Extension for CoreMedia Studio offering a simple and extendable UI.
- studio-server: CoreMedia Studio server extension. Providing the communication interfaces (retrieval of ingest-service data plus WFS communication).
- workflow-server: Additional CoreMedia Workflow to execute the workflow.
The picture below is depicting the high-level architecture:
The studio-server requires minimal configuration for the ingest-service communication (basically the jwt token), and information about the available workflows. The list below is outlining the configuration:
- ingest.config.hosts[<IDENTIFIER_ENVIRONMENT>]=<URL_TO_INGEST>
- ingest.config.tokens[<IDENTIFIER_ENVIRONMENT>]=<JWT_TOKEN>
- ingest.config.sync2wfs[<IDENTIFIER_SYNC_TYPE]=<WORKFLOW_NAME>
Please note that for the ingest.config.sync2wfs, the internal itemId for the selector in ContentEditor.mxml should be used. In our codebase, we are only providing the Partial synchronization, which is identified by the itemId "partialSync". The itemId is used as <IDENTIFIER_SYNC_TYPE>, and the workflow name in the "studio-partial-sync-workflow.xml" (StudioPartialSyncWorkflow). Example entry: ingest.config.sync2wfs[partialSync]=StudioPartialSyncWorkflow
In Studio, it is necessary to create a new Settings document inside the folder:
- /Options/Settings/Content sync/ContentSyncSettings
The following entries needs to be present:
- Top-level element is named "environments" and is of type "StructList"
- Below the StructList with name environments it is necessary to add one struct per environment
Each Struct (which is representing an environment) has the following entries:
- ident (identifier which is the same used as in the studio-server configuration)
- name (Name which should be displayed in the CoreMedia Studio interface)
- recursion (Number indicating how many sub-references should be resolved. 1 is the default)
As an addition, it is possible to define filters for:
- Property names
- Content types
which are in general ignored, even for the references. To add filtering options, the following configuration can be made:
- Add a new StringList called propertyExcludes to the root. Once done, each entry is representing the property name which should be excluded.
- Add a new StringList called contentTypeExcludes to the root. Once done, each entry is representing the content type to be excluded.
The picture below is showing an example:
The Content-sync-example can be (after the extension was correctly set-up) started in CoreMedia Studio by simply opening the "Apps"-Menu,
and next by a single click on the Content Sync button. The Picture below is showing the button inside the Apps menu.
Intentionally, the next step is to click on button Content Sync and once done, the content-sync editor is opening. Per default, the first environment in the configured list is selected as active.
The column on the left is basically displaying all configuration options and actions.
Overview of all configured synchronization options. Please note that it is possible to add custom sync types e.g site-synchronization ...
Overview of all configured environments. This panel is reflecting the settings.
This panel is providing the button to execute the workflow. If clicked, a workflow for the current synchronization set is started and an entry is added to the list in panel 4 (see next section).
Once a workflow is started or there are already running synchronization workflows, those are displayed with the typename. Each workflow displayed in this panel can be aborted. If the workflow terminates, the entry also disappears.
As mentioned in the configuration section, it is also possible to configure exclusions where
- property exclusions and
- content type exclusions
will appear as separate collapsible panels. The picture below is showing the panels.
TODO SCREENSHOT