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dCS Product Overview
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Chapter 6
A Typical Project
Broadly speaking, your dCS project is going to involve the following steps:
Step 1: Select a Systems Integrator (SI) Step 2: Prepare the Hardware and Network Step 3: Install the Product Step 4: Train the Development Staff Step 5: Write the Code on the Development System Step 6: Set Up the Management System Step 7: Train the Content Contributors Step 8: Add and Modify Content Step 9: Publish the Content to the Delivery System
Step 1: Select a Systems Integrator (SI)
After purchasing dCS, you need to pick a systems integrator (SI) who will implement the site. Most companies hire an experienced external SI team to develop the site along with developers from the purchasing company. That way, the developers from the purchasing company will acquire practical experience and be able to continue making improvements to the site after the initial implementation.
divine is an experienced SI for dCS implementations. After all, divine created dCS. Alternatively, you can pick a different SI and then use divine consultants to monitor their progress.
Step 2: Prepare the Hardware and Network
The SI typically picks the hardware and network configurations appropriate for your three sites (development, management, and delivery). The dCS Architect's Guide provides guidelines in choosing hardware, but ultimately, each site has unique requirements. You will need to pick hardware based on the answers to questions like the following:
- For the development environment, how many developers are there?
- For the management environment:
- For a dynamic delivery environment:
- For a static delivery environment, dCS is not installed. So, you should check with the vendor providing the web server.
Step 3: Install the Product
The following software must be installed and configured on your development site, management site, and delivery site:
- Operating system patches
- A web server
- A bridge between the web server and application server (if necessary)
- An application server
- A DBMS
- A JDBC Driver
- Content Server
- Additional dCS products such as CS-Direct
You can install the software yourself or divine can install it for you. Installing Content Server and the additional dCS products is fairly easy; however, installing and configuring all the other layers of software to work properly with Content Server requires additional expertise. If your site does not have a lot of experience installing J2EE software, then we recommend having divine install the software for you.
Note
All layers of J2EE software provide a considerable number of configuration parameters that affect performance, so it is very important that the system be properly configured.
Step 4: Train the Development Staff
The quickest way to get your development staff productive is to take the appropriate dCS developer training courses. Your staff can travel to one of the divine training centers or a divine trainer can come to your offices.
Step 5: Write the Code on the Development System
The most time-consuming part of the project is implementing the system. Developers must work closely with business and technical managers to determine what content must be served. Graphic artists must work closely with your own staff to determine the appearance and branding of the site.
The dCS Architect's Guide helps you organize the implementation, while the dCS Developer's Guide explains how to write the code. The dCS Developer's Tag Reference details each tag.
Step 6: Set Up the Management System
The system administrator must perform tasks such as the following on the management system:
- Create users.
- Create roles.
- Create a workflow.
- Enable asset types for each site.
- Configure publishing.
The dCS Administrator's Guide explains how to do all these tasks.
Step 7: Train the Content Contributors
divine offers a short, hands-on course for your content contributors and editors. This course teaches them how to use dCS to add, edit, and publish content.
Step 8: Add and Modify Content
Your well-trained content contributors must now add content and push it through the workflow.
At some sites, content originates from external sources, such as from a wire feed. In these circumstances, you must determine how to grab the content and convert it to a format suitable for dCS.
Step 9: Publish the Content to the Delivery System
Ultimately, the content gets published to the delivery site so that visitors can view the pages.
Of course, sites repeat Steps 8 and 9 as often as desired. Some sites publish every few minutes; other sites might only publish once a month.
Summary
In the coming chapters, we'll explore how a fictitious company works through Steps 5, 6, 8, and 9.
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