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Alfresco (software)
Encyclopedia
Alfresco is a Free/Libre
enterprise content management
system for Microsoft Windows
and Unix-like
operating systems. Alfresco comes in two flavours. Alfresco Community Edition is free software
, LGPL licensed open source
and open standards. Alfresco Enterprise Edition is commercially & proprietary licensed open source, open standards and enterprise
scale. Its design is geared towards users who require a high degree of modularity
and scalable performance. Alfresco includes a content repository, an out-of-the-box web portal
framework
for managing and using standard portal content, a CIFS interface that provides file system compatibility on Microsoft Windows and Unix-like operating systems, a web content management system
capable of virtualizing webapps and static sites via Apache Tomcat
, Lucene
indexing, and Activiti workflow. The Alfresco system is developed using Java technology.
) and John Powell (a former COO of Business Objects
) founded Alfresco Software, Inc. in 2005. Its investors include the investment firms SAP Ventures, Accel Partners and Mayfield Fund
. The original technical staff consisted of principal engineers from Documentum
and from Oracle
.
While Alfresco's product initially focused on document management, in May 2006 the company announced
its intention to expand into web content management by acquiring senior technical and managerial staff from Interwoven
; this included its VP of Web Content Management, two principal engineers, and a member of its user-interface team. In 2007 Alfresco hired the principal sales engineer from Vignette
.
In October, 2009, the 2009 Open Source CMS Market Share Report described Alfresco as a leading Java-based open source web content management system.
In 2010, Alfresco sponsored a new open-source
BPM
engine called Activiti
.
In July 2011, Alfresco and Ephesoft announced a technology partnership to offer their users document capture
and Content Management Interoperability Services
brought together for intelligent PDF
capture and search and workflow
development.
Alfresco has won over 18 various awards over time.
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
enterprise content management
Enterprise content management
Enterprise Content Management is a formalized means of organizing and storing an organization's documents, and other content, that relate to the organization's processes...
system for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Unix-like
Unix-like
A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....
operating systems. Alfresco comes in two flavours. Alfresco Community Edition is free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
, LGPL licensed open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
and open standards. Alfresco Enterprise Edition is commercially & proprietary licensed open source, open standards and enterprise
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
scale. Its design is geared towards users who require a high degree of modularity
Modular programming
Modular programming is a software design technique that increases the extent to which software is composed of separate, interchangeable components called modules by breaking down program functions into modules, each of which accomplishes one function and contains everything necessary to accomplish...
and scalable performance. Alfresco includes a content repository, an out-of-the-box web portal
Web portal
A web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way....
framework
Software framework
In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...
for managing and using standard portal content, a CIFS interface that provides file system compatibility on Microsoft Windows and Unix-like operating systems, a web content management system
Web content management system
A web content management system is a software system that provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage website content with relative ease...
capable of virtualizing webapps and static sites via Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat is an open source web server and servlet container developed by the Apache Software Foundation...
, Lucene
Lucene
Apache Lucene is a free/open source information retrieval software library, originally created in Java by Doug Cutting. It is supported by the Apache Software Foundation and is released under the Apache Software License....
indexing, and Activiti workflow. The Alfresco system is developed using Java technology.
History
John Newton (co-founder of DocumentumDocumentum
Documentum is an enterprise content management platform, now delivered by EMC Corporation, as well as the name of the software company that originally developed the technology. EMC acquired Documentum for $1.7 billion in December, 2003...
) and John Powell (a former COO of Business Objects
Business Objects (company)
SAP Business Objects is a French enterprise software company, specializing in business intelligence . Since 2007, it has been a part of SAP AG. The company claimed more than 46,000 customers worldwide in its final earnings release...
) founded Alfresco Software, Inc. in 2005. Its investors include the investment firms SAP Ventures, Accel Partners and Mayfield Fund
Mayfield Fund
Mayfield Fund is one of the oldest venture capital firms in the US, focusing on early-stage to growth-stage investments in information technology companies with a focus on enterprise software, Internet consumer & media services, and communications....
. The original technical staff consisted of principal engineers from Documentum
Documentum
Documentum is an enterprise content management platform, now delivered by EMC Corporation, as well as the name of the software company that originally developed the technology. EMC acquired Documentum for $1.7 billion in December, 2003...
and from Oracle
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
.
While Alfresco's product initially focused on document management, in May 2006 the company announced
its intention to expand into web content management by acquiring senior technical and managerial staff from Interwoven
Interwoven
Interwoven is a line of Content Management Systems and related products. Previously a stand-alone company headquartered in San Jose, California, USA and founded in 1995, it was acquired on March 17, 2009 by Autonomy...
; this included its VP of Web Content Management, two principal engineers, and a member of its user-interface team. In 2007 Alfresco hired the principal sales engineer from Vignette
Vignette (software)
Vignette Corporation is a company headquartered in Austin, Texas, that offers a suite of content management, portal, collaboration, document management, and records management software. On May 6, 2009 Open Text Corporation announced they would buy Vignette for $310 million...
.
In October, 2009, the 2009 Open Source CMS Market Share Report described Alfresco as a leading Java-based open source web content management system.
In 2010, Alfresco sponsored a new open-source
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
BPM
Business process management
Business process management is a holistic management approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organization with the wants and needs of clients. It promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility, and integration with technology. BPM attempts to...
engine called Activiti
Activiti (software)
Activiti is an open-source workflow engine written in Java that can execute business processes described in BPMN 2.0.In May 2011, Tom Baeyens and Joram Barrez, the two key developers for jBPM left Red Hat and started Activiti as employees of Alfresco...
.
In July 2011, Alfresco and Ephesoft announced a technology partnership to offer their users document capture
Document capture software
Document Capture Software refers to applications that provide the ability and feature set to automate the process of scanning paper documents. Most scanning hardware, both scanners and copiers, provides the basic ability to scan to any number of image file formats, including: PDF, TIFF, JPG, BMP, etc...
and Content Management Interoperability Services
Content Management Interoperability Services
Content Management Interoperability Services is a specification for improving interoperability between Enterprise Content Management systems. OASIS, a web standards consortium, approved CMIS as an OASIS Specification on May 1, 2010....
brought together for intelligent PDF
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
capture and search and workflow
Workflow
A workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps. It is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person, a group of persons, an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms. Workflow may be seen as any abstraction of real work...
development.
Usage
Enterprise content management for documents, web, records, images, and collaborative content development.Features
Alfresco is capable of the following:- Document Management
- Web Content Management (including full webapp & session virtualization)
- Repository-level versioning (similar to Subversion)
- Transparent overlays (similar to unionfsUnionFSUnionFS is a filesystem service for Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD which implements a union mount for other file systems. It allows files and directories of separate file systems, known as branches, to be transparently overlaid, forming a single coherent file system...
) - Records ManagementRecords ManagementRecords management, or RM, is the practice of maintaining the records of an organization from the time they are created up to their eventual disposal...
, including 5015.2Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records Management Software ApplicationsUnited States Department of Defense 5015.2-STD or the Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records Management Software Applications was implemented in June 2002...
certification - Image ManagementDocument imagingDocument imaging is an information technology category for systems capable of replicating documents commonly used in business. Document imaging systems can take many forms including microfilm, on demand printers, facsimile machines, copiers, multifunction printers, document scanners, computer...
- Auto-generated XFormsXFormsXForms is an XML format for the specification of a data processing model for XML data and user interface for the XML data, such as web forms...
with AJAXAjax- Mythology :* Ajax , son of Telamon, ruler of Salamis and a hero in the Trojan War, also known as "Ajax the Great"* Ajax the Lesser, son of Oileus, ruler of Locris and the leader of the Locrian contingent during the Trojan War.- People :...
support - Integrated Publishing
- Repository access via CIFS/SMBServer Message BlockIn computer networking, Server Message Block , also known as Common Internet File System operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used to provide shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an...
, FTPFile Transfer ProtocolFile Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...
, WebDAVWebDAVWeb-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning is a set of methods based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that facilitates collaboration between users in editing and managing documents and files stored on World Wide Web servers...
, NFSNFSNFS may mean:* Network File System , the Network File System protocol developed by Sun Microsystems* NFS , a former Icelandic television news service* National Financial Switch, a bank network in India...
and CMISContent Management Interoperability ServicesContent Management Interoperability Services is a specification for improving interoperability between Enterprise Content Management systems. OASIS, a web standards consortium, approved CMIS as an OASIS Specification on May 1, 2010.... - Activiti workflow
- LuceneLuceneApache Lucene is a free/open source information retrieval software library, originally created in Java by Doug Cutting. It is supported by the Apache Software Foundation and is released under the Apache Software License....
search - Federated servers
- Multi-language support
- Portable application packaging
- Multi-platform support (officially WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, GNU/Linux and Solaris) - Browser-based GUI (official support for Internet ExplorerInternet ExplorerWindows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
and FirefoxMozilla FirefoxMozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
) - Desktop integration with Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
, OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
and LibreOfficeLibreOfficeLibreOffice is a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation as a fork of OpenOffice.org. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, and available on a variety of platforms...
. - Clustering support
- Pluggable authenticationAuthenticationAuthentication is the act of confirming the truth of an attribute of a datum or entity...
: NTLMNTLMIn a Windows network, NTLM is a suite of Microsoft security protocols that provides authentication, integrity, and confidentiality to users....
, LDAP, KerberosKerberosKerberos may refer to:* Cerberus, the hound of Hades * Kerberos saga, a science fiction series by Mamoru Oshii* Kerberos , a computer network authentication protocol* Kerberos Dante, a character from Saint Seiya...
, CASCAS' may refer to:-Institutions:* California Academy of Sciences, a museum of natural history, San Francisco, California, USA* Casualty Actuarial Society, a professional society of actuaries in the United States... - Multiple DatabaseDatabaseA database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
support: MySQLMySQLMySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
, PostgreSQLPostgreSQLPostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software...
(Community Edition), Oracle DatabaseOracle DatabaseThe Oracle Database is an object-relational database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation....
, IBM DB2IBM DB2The IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition is a relational model database server developed by IBM. It primarily runs on Unix , Linux, IBM i , z/OS and Windows servers. DB2 also powers the different IBM InfoSphere Warehouse editions...
, Microsoft SQL ServerMicrosoft SQL ServerMicrosoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...
(Enterprise Edition).
Alfresco has won over 18 various awards over time.
See also
- List of content management systems
- List of collaborative software
- List of applications with iCalendar support