EMC Documentum CenterStage - Dell EMC Japan · EMC®Documentum®CenterStage Version1.0 OverviewGuide P/N300008938A04 EMCCorporation CorporateHeadquarters: Hopkinton,MA01748‑9103

EMC® Documentum® CenterStageVersion 1.0

Overview Guide

P/N 300008938 A04

EMC CorporationCorporate Headquarters:

Hopkinton, MA 01748‑91031‑508‑435‑1000www.EMC.com

Copyright© 2009 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Published September 2009

EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to changewithout notice.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED AS IS. EMC CORPORATION MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONSOR WARRANTIES OF ANY KINDWITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLYDISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

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All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

Table of Contents

Preface ................................................................................................................................. 7

Chapter 1 Understanding the CenterStage Product Suite ............................................. 9CenterStage Essentials and CenterStage Pro ........................................................ 9Comparing CenterStage Pro and CenterStage Essentials ..................................... 10CenterStage Interoperating Products ................................................................. 11

Chapter 2 CenterStage Functional Overview ............................................................... 13Starting CenterStage — the Community Home Page ........................................... 13Working with spaces......................................................................................... 14Working with space templates ....................................................................... 16

Working with content ....................................................................................... 17Importing document files .............................................................................. 17Editing content ............................................................................................. 18Commenting on content................................................................................ 19Sharing content with others........................................................................... 20Interacting with content inline ....................................................................... 21

Working with wikis (CenterStage Pro) ............................................................... 23Working with page widgets (CenterStage Pro)................................................ 25Editing wiki pages ........................................................................................ 26

Working with discussions (CenterStage Pro) ...................................................... 27Working with blogs (CenterStage Pro) ............................................................... 29Working with tags (CenterStage Pro) ................................................................. 32Keeping track of changes .................................................................................. 33Finding content ................................................................................................ 33

Chapter 3 CenterStage Technical Overview ................................................................. 35Understanding the CenterStage containment hierarchy....................................... 35Understanding widgets..................................................................................... 36Understanding pages........................................................................................ 37Understanding sections..................................................................................... 38Understanding spaces....................................................................................... 39Understanding users and permissions ............................................................... 40Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) ............................................................................ 42

Understanding the content library ..................................................................... 42Wikis ........................................................................................................... 42Anatomy of a wiki page ............................................................................ 42

Blogs ........................................................................................................... 43Anatomy of a blog .................................................................................... 44

Understanding templates .................................................................................. 45Working with CenterStage plug‑ins ................................................................... 46

EMC CenterStage Overview Guide v1.0 3

Table of Contents

Chapter 4 CenterStage Architectural Overview ........................................................... 49Understanding the CenterStage infrastructure .................................................... 49Understanding the server tier ........................................................................ 50Understanding the core services tier .............................................................. 51Understanding the application server tier....................................................... 52Understanding the user interface infrastructure.............................................. 52

Understanding the CenterStage object model ..................................................... 53Object model overview ................................................................................. 53Feeds ........................................................................................................... 55

Understanding permissions in CenterStage ........................................................ 55Space ACLs.................................................................................................. 55Custom ACLs............................................................................................... 57Customizing ACLs for sections.................................................................. 57Customizing ACLs for pages and child pages............................................. 57Custom ACLs for folders .......................................................................... 57Moving pages........................................................................................... 57Moving sections ....................................................................................... 58Moving folders......................................................................................... 58Moving documents................................................................................... 58

Sharing content ............................................................................................ 58Sharing pages, documents, and attachments............................................... 58Sharing sections........................................................................................ 59

4 EMC CenterStage Overview Guide v1.0

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Figure 1. The community home page ................................................................................... 14Figure 2. My Spaces............................................................................................................ 15Figure 3. Members of a Space .............................................................................................. 16Figure 4. Dialog for setting member roles............................................................................. 16Figure 5. The Attachments page .......................................................................................... 18Figure 6. Folder with content............................................................................................... 18Figure 7. Version history ..................................................................................................... 19Figure 8. Comments on items in a folder .............................................................................. 20Figure 9. Sharing a link via email......................................................................................... 21Figure 10. Slide view ............................................................................................................ 22Figure 11. Viewing multiple pages inline ............................................................................... 23Figure 12. Wiki home page ................................................................................................... 24Figure 13. Wiki page ............................................................................................................ 25Figure 14. Adding widgets to a page ..................................................................................... 26Figure 15. Rich text tool bar .................................................................................................. 27Figure 16. Discussion page.................................................................................................... 28Figure 17. Discussion reply ................................................................................................... 29Figure 18. Blog home page.................................................................................................... 30Figure 19. Blog post.............................................................................................................. 31Figure 20. Blog archive ......................................................................................................... 32Figure 21. Tag cloud with tagged items.................................................................................. 33Figure 22. Filtered search ...................................................................................................... 34Figure 23. Widgets that comprise a wiki page ........................................................................ 43Figure 24. Blog page widgets ................................................................................................ 44Figure 25. Blog post page widgets ......................................................................................... 45Figure 26. CenterStage infrastructure abstract ........................................................................ 50Figure 27. Space ACL ........................................................................................................... 56Figure 28. Section ACL ......................................................................................................... 56


Table of Contents

List of Tables

Table 1. Intended use ......................................................................................................... 9Table 2. CenterStage add‑ons............................................................................................. 12Table 3. Page widgets ........................................................................................................ 36Table 4. Public and private spaces ...................................................................................... 40Table 5. Permission levels in CenterStage............................................................................ 40Table 6. CenterStage Roles................................................................................................. 41Table 7. Template types ..................................................................................................... 45Table 8. CenterStage plug‑ins............................................................................................. 46Table 9. CenterStage object model overview ....................................................................... 53


Preface

This manual describes CenterStage version 1.0 from three different perspectives: a user interfaceoverview, a technical overview, and an architectural overview.

Intended audienceThis manual is for business experts or business analysts, system administrators, developers andevaluators who want to get familiar with the CenterStage product suite and understand theapplication concepts.

Revision HistoryThe following changes have been made to this document.

Revision History

Revision Date Description

June 2009 Initial publication

July 2009 Revised for refresh of controlled release.

September 2009 Revised for general availability release.


Preface


Chapter 1Understanding the CenterStageProduct Suite

EMC CenterStage introduces a product suite for EMC Documentum that helps organizations enablecommunication among global communities across the extended enterprise, and extract greaterinsight from information and relationships. CenterStage accomplishes these goals while addressinggovernance, risk, and compliance requirements.

CenterStage Essentials and CenterStage ProThe CenterStage product suite introduces two clients with different focuses:

• CenterStage Essentials provides basic content services and team workspaces. It allows knowledgeworkers to effectively collaborate on documents with distributed teams. CenterStage Essentialsprovides basic content services with a strong focus on ease of use.

• CenterStage Pro offers all the functionality of CenterStage Essentials, plus web 2.0 capabilities(such as wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds), advanced search and discovery, community workspacecustomization, and the ability to create communities. The additional features available inCenterStage Pro enable global communities to interact dynamically across the extended enterpriseand to benefit from the full value of their information.

CenterStage Essentials and CenterStage Pro are aimed at different use cases. Table 1, page 9 describeshow each product is meant to be used.

Table 1. Intended use

Client Use

CenterStage Essentials • Reading and viewing content in a convenient and accessibleway.

• Collaborating on document‑centric information.

• Searching for documents contextually and efficiently.


Understanding the CenterStage Product Suite

Client Use

• Managing content using standard methods (check out, checkin, and version tracking).

CenterStage Pro • Facilitating a secure, social, and open sharing of ideas, goingbeyond document‑based collaboration.

• Capturing critical knowledge and expertise within theextended enterprise.

• Offering cross‑project visibility, new ways to organizeinformation, and dynamic and aggregated views of yourorganizational knowledge.

• Interacting with a wide range of information sources.

• Understanding and extracting relationships betweeninformation, its authors, and their domain expertise, providingfurther context for the classification of information.

Comparing CenterStage Pro and CenterStageEssentialsThis section describes the out‑of‑the‑box features available in CenterStage Essentials and CenterStagePro without the ECM interoperating productsmentioned in CenterStage Interoperating Products, page11.

Feature Essentials Pro

Basic Content and Collaboration Services

Public and private spaces ● ●Delegated space administration ● ●Space‑ and object‑level content permission ● ●Versioning support ● ●Custom content types ● ●HTTP‑based content transfer ● ●Plug‑in based content transfer (seamless desktop integration,multiple file import, desktop clipboard support)

● ●

Content viewers (single page by default, multi page withtransformation services upgrade)

● ●

Contextual content preview ● ●Policy‑based workspace configuration ● ●Contextual comments on content ● ●



Feature Essentials Pro

Change notifications (as soon as updated, daily or weekly) ● ●Content sharing ● ●Recent activities ● ●Workspace sections and sub‑team support ●Recent activity widget for specific content types ●Discussion forum ●Structured processes

Content lifecycle support ● ●Event‑triggered collaboration through services orchestration ● ●Social Networking

Community content and configurable space home page ● ●Wiki and blog support ●Configurable wiki pages and page widgets ●Out‑of‑the‑box page widgets ●Wiki and wiki page templates ●Content tagging, popular tag and content aggregation by tags ●RSS support (for subscription and consumption) ●Content Discovery

Simple search and search scope filtering ● ●Faceted navigation and customizable filters ● ●Filters extracted from concept recognition for people, locationand company

●

Federated search and search against external informationsources

●

CenterStage Interoperating ProductsBoth CenterStage Essentials and CenterStage Pro can leverage the EMC Document platform’scapabilities, as described in Table 2, page 12.



Table 2. CenterStage addons

EMC platform products Use case

Branch Office Caching Services(BOCS)

Your organization is distributed across different geographies, andconsistent quality of service and performance across geographiesis important. BOCS helps your organization place content cachesclose to end users in branch offices or other remote locations,where there might be limited infrastructure and no on‑siteadministrators.

Media TransformationServices/Advanced DocumentTransformation Services

These products, part of Content Transformation Services, providerendition capabilities required to enable multi‑page viewing incontent viewers embedded in CenterStage.

Retention Policy Services (RPS) Your organization needs to remain compliant with regulatorydemands and needs to manage the growth of digital information.Retention Policy Services provides a policy infrastructurethat automates the retention and disposition of informationin compliance with regulations and information lifecyclemanagement best practices.

Trusted Content Services Your organization requires advanced security control forsensitive environments. Trusted Content Services providesadditional information security guaranties, including informationencryption as data is stored. It also allows for digital shreddingwhen information is destroyed, so that it cannot be retrieved,even with modern forensic methods.


Chapter 2CenterStage Functional Overview

This chapter provides an introduction to the end‑user experience of the CenterStage interface.

A Documentum repository can host one or more CenterStage spaces, which provide a way ofgrouping information by a particular field of interest.

Starting CenterStage — the Community HomePageUsers access CenterStage using a web browser. The interface includes a header, navigation area, anddisplay area. When a user opens multiple spaces, each is contained in a separate tab of the displayarea.

When users first log in to CenterStage, the Community Home provides an aggregate view of theactivities that have occurred across all the user’s spaces.

The interface is described in the illustration The community home page.


CenterStage Functional Overview

Figure 1. The community home page

Working with spacesA space is an online collection of content and business capabilities (such as lifecycles, versioning andcontent policies, permissions, and so on), within which space members can collaborate by accessing,managing, and sharing that content.



Figure 2. My Spaces

Spaces can be either public or private. Public spaces are available to all CenterStage members ona particular repository. Private spaces require that members be invited to participate by a spacecoordinator.

Members’ rights to content in spaces to which they belong are determined by member roles. Roles arespace‑based, and every space member has a role.

A role is a collection of actions that users with that role can perform in a space, and the rights theyhave to content in the space (for example: create content, edit content, move content, copy content,add members, and so forth). The following are built‑in roles that you cannot change or removefrom the space:

• Participant — A Participant can import content and interact with features of the space. When aParticipant imports content to a space, the Participant is the owner of that content.

• Content Owner — Content Owners have full rights to the content they create, and can delete thecontent. An item of content can only have one owner at a time.

• Coordinator — A Coordinator is the administrator for a space, including its content and members.

When Coordinators view the Member list for their spaces, they have options for adding, inviting,removing or changing roles for their members.



Figure 3. Members of a Space

By changing member roles, Coordinators are able to grant or optionally further restrict permissionsusing custom roles.

Figure 4. Dialog for setting member roles

As they fine‑tune member permissions, Coordinators are able to tailor CenterStage to the specificcollaboration needs of the organization.

Working with space templates

When a user creates a space that could be reused for similar content in another context, the user cansave the space as a template, so that it can be used as a model and starting point for creating newspaces.

When a template is created from an existing space, the new template copies from the originalcontent the following:

• icons

• content policy

• notification message



• invitation message

• custom roles

• templates scoped to the space

• the current version of all attachments to which the user has access

• in wikis, the current version of pages in the wiki

The new template does not copy the following:• permissions

• property values from the original space

• membership

• virtual documents

• comments

• lifecycle (the retention policy for the content)

• Content that has an ʺinitial draftʺ ACL (that is, newly created items that have not been savedwhen the template is saved)

• custom versioning — version policies are reset to the space’s policy

• named members on custom ACLs of content in the space

Working with contentThe overall purpose of CenterStage is to make content accessible to users in a way that is bothorganized and intuitive. There are two general categories of content in CenterStage: document files infolders or stored as attachments, and inline content created directly in wikis, blogs, and discussions.

Importing document files

Users can import files as attachments to CenterStage pages. The user clicks the Attachments link onthe page to which to add the attachment.



Figure 5. The Attachments page

On the Attachments page, the user clicks New >Import Files, then browses for the file to attach to thecurrent page. The file is uploaded and listed as an attachment to the current page.

Documents can also be imported and organized into folders.

Figure 6. Folder with content

The user navigates to the folder and chooses New>Import Files, then browses for the file to insert tothe folder. The file is uploaded and added to the folder.

Editing content

Users can open files for viewing and editing directly from CenterStage. A convenient way ofupdating files is to view the item’s version history.



Figure 7. Version history

From the History screen, the user can view the file in any of its revisions. If the file has already beenupdated, the user can import a new version of the file and make that the current version.

If the user selects the current version of the file, the Edit button is enabled. Clicking the Edit buttonopens the file locally for editing. When the user is finished editing the file, the user can import thefile as a new version.

Users can view any version of a file. Users can also choose to make any earlier version the currentversion of the file, to revert to an earlier iteration.

Commenting on content

Many pages allow users to comment on the information in the page, either adding more insights orasking questions of the original author. Every content item in CenterStage has a page. Everythingcan be commented upon, if the user has permission to comment.



Figure 8. Comments on items in a folder

When a comment is the first in a particular thread, it is added to the top of the list; this keeps thefreshest material at the top of the list. Replies to comments are stored below the primary comment inchronological order, so that they can be read in the context of the original discussion.

Sharing content with others

When a user adds a piece of content to CenterStage, the user can send a link to share the content withselected members, or all members of the space.



Figure 9. Sharing a link via email

The user selects a file to share and chooses the Share file... command. An email message with a linkto the file page is displayed in a rich text editor. The user has the option of adding some context to themessage before sending it to the selected members.

Interacting with content inline

Users can use viewers to look at the first page of content to preview information in context.



Figure 10. Slide view

With the optional Content Transformation Services add‑on, users can view multiple pages of adocument inline, without opening the file in a separate editor.



Figure 11. Viewing multiple pages inline

Working with wikis (CenterStage Pro)A wiki is a collection of pages that can be edited by multiple people and is usually focused on aparticular subject. Wikis are top‑level items of a space. Within wikis are wiki pages. Wikis cannotnest folders or other wikis, blogs, or discussions, nor can they be added to folders. Each wiki hasa home page. Users can subscribe to a wiki, tag a wiki, save it as a template, add, copy, move, anddelete wiki pages, and add or remove widgets on the wiki home page.



Figure 12. Wiki home page

The user can select a page in the list and click the View button to open it. Users can also search thespace for a particular entry or navigate using folders.



Figure 13. Wiki page

Working with page widgets (CenterStage Pro)

Widgets are small applications embedded in CenterStage wiki pages. All content in CenterStage isviewed through one of several standard types of widget. Widgets enable users to view and interactwith items inside a space, as well as with external content. Widgets provide the layout and contentfor a page in a wiki, blog, or discussion.

Users can customize pages they own by dragging and dropping widgets from the widget toolbarto the page.



Figure 14. Adding widgets to a page

Users can create custom pages that present their pertinent information in the most convenient anduseful format, using the commandWiki Actions>New page in this wiki....

Editing wiki pages

Users with proper permissions have the option to edit the page, as well. In Edit mode, users caninteract with the widgets on the page. The toolbar changes depending on the widget being modified.When a user interacts with a rich text area, the Rich Text toolbar provides the user with controls thatenable the user to modify and format pages without having to learn the underlying wiki markuplanguage. This allows users to collaborate directly in the web browser, without having to downloadcontent, edit it in a separate program, then post it again for the next user to edit.



Figure 15. Rich text tool bar

Pages have the following additional capabilities:• Attachments.Users can attach files in their native format (for example, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, AdobePDF) to the wiki page. Depending on their role, users can import files, view files, edit them, andtrack versions of their changes in CenterStage.

• TagsA tag is a descriptive label for a particular piece of content. Tags are shared by all users in aspace. Tags can be used as an alternative way to browse for information in CenterStage. For moreinformation on tags, see Working with Tags.

• HistoryUsers can view the history of a page, open previous versions of the page for reference, and rollback changes to any version of the page.

Working with discussions (CenterStage Pro)CenterStage Pro allows users to create discussion topics. Discussions are open‑ended conversationsaround a particular topic. One or more topics can be created in a single discussion.



Figure 16. Discussion page

A discussion allows comments and replies to be tracked as a set. Each discussion is a postingof an initial topic followed by a chronological thread of multiple users’ opinions, explanations,illustrations, and criticisms.

Discussions are the most conversational content type. Discussions are similar to blogs in promotingnew ideas, but they differ in that users can participate equally in giving input. Discussions promotecollaboration on solutions, ideas, and other endeavors. Discussions also provide a place for userswho share interests to bond in the community.

Discussion topics are viewed in a topic page. The original discussion topic (or seed) is displayed at thetop of the page, with replies shown below in chronological order.



Figure 17. Discussion reply

Discussions are a CenterStage Pro client feature. Users with the CenterStage Essentials client can readdiscussions and add replies to topics, but cannot add discussions or discussion topics.

Working with blogs (CenterStage Pro)A blog (short for “web log”) is a chronological series of articles (posts) by one or more authors forothers to read and comment upon. Blogs are a CenterStage Pro client feature. Users with theCenterStage Essentials client can read blog entries and make comments, but cannot create blogs orblog pages.



Figure 18. Blog home page

A blog is usually centered around a particular subject area. Blogs are normally owned by one person,or a small group of contributors. People read and comment on the blog’s subject matter, the writingstyle, the opinions expressed, the knowledge shared, or some combination of all of the above.

Blog posts are created on a post page. Comments are listed in a collapsible panel below.



Figure 19. Blog post

Blog posts can be viewed on an archive page, which lists the topics in reverse chronological order.



Figure 20. Blog archive

Working with tags (CenterStage Pro)In CenterStage Pro, users have the option of organizing their content using arbitrary labels called tags.For example, a user might tag a video to be edited, a spreadsheet to be updated, and a document tobe revised as “This week’s projects.” A software engineer might tag project specifications as “SupportResources” so that users in the product support department are able to find the documents mostpertinent to helping end users understand a product. This kind of tagging, independent of theobjective criteria that might normally be used to classify information, brings another, more intuitivedimension to the ability to locate and utilize information.



Figure 21. Tag cloud with tagged items

When a user wants to find content, the user can view the space’s tag cloud, a list of the most popularlyused tags. When the user clicks a term, CenterStage displays a list of content tagged with that term.The tag cloud displays the most frequently used tags with larger font sizes and less frequently usedtags with smaller font sizes.

Keeping track of changesTo stay up to date on changes to the information in your favorite spaces, you can subscribe to a spaceor an individual document and receive email notification of any updates. You can choose to benotified immediately, daily, or weekly.

Finding contentUsers can search for content by search expression, by filter, or a combination of both. Users cansearch in the entire repository, the current space, or a set of spaces, to locate any item in any spaceto which the user has access. Users can also search external sources, such as other Documentumrepositories, eRooms or internet websites.



Figure 22. Filtered search

Users search for information based on categories of information, or filters. An item’s filters can bebased on an object’s metadata (name, size, modification date) or on information extracted from theobject’s content, such as company name, location, or people associated with the item. Multifilteredsearch allows users to choose the criteria they feel are most important, providing better search resultswith fewer extraneous items returned.

Content that matches the search criteria is listed in the Results area of the search page. In the Resultsarea, the user can perform the same actions on CenterStage items as in any content area, except formoving or copying items into it. Items from a repository or from extra sources allow only a restrictedlist of possible actions. Some repository items that are not available in CenterStage are grayed out.

As in a content area, users can switch the Results area to icon view. When the user points to an item inicon view, its preview appears. Information in previews help the user to decide which items in searchresults are relevant. The preview shows a thumbnail image of an item’s content, plus the followingdetails: Owner, Size, Changed by, and Changed date. In the preview, users can perform actions on anitem such as View page or Edit page, or display its details and comments.


Chapter 3CenterStage Technical Overview

This chapter describes the components used to create the CenterStage interface.

Understanding the CenterStage containmenthierarchyCenterStage allows users to access documents in the Documentum repository in a familiar andcollaborative way consistent with popular web 2.0 applications. While CenterStage provides accessto the repository, the repository itself is never visible to the user.

In the abstract, a Documentum repository contains one or more spaces, which provide a way ofgrouping information by a particular field of interest. Within spaces, there are sections, which groupinformation by type (wiki pages, blog entries, discussions). Sections consist of one or more pages,which are used to organize and display content. Pages contain widgets, which are lightweightapplications used to edit and view discrete types of content, and attachments, which are contentfiles in their native formats.


CenterStage Technical Overview

The following topics provide additional detail on these layers within the hierarchy, building fromthe bottom up.

Understanding widgetsWidgets are small applications, each with a very specific purpose such as displaying a graphic,editing text, or displaying a list of pages. By dragging widgets onto CenterStage pages, users areable to configure their workspace in ways that are most convenient for the discrete activities theyperform on a day‑to‑day basis.

A significant number of widgets ship with CenterStage. Essentially, widgets come in three types:layout, viewers, and editors. Layout widgets are containers for other widgets. Viewers displaycontent, and editors allow the user to change the content of the widget.

Table 3. Page widgets

Widget Type Description

Group box Layout The group box is a container widget. Widgetsadded to the group box can be hidden ordisplayed by collapsing or expanding the groupbox.

Column box Layout The column box is a container widget thatdisplays widgets in two columns.



Widget Type Description

Rich text Editor Displays a rich text editor.

Contents Viewer Displays content in a standard hierarchical treestructure.

Recent spaces Viewer Displays a list of spaces most recently visitedby the user.

Recent activity Viewer Displays a list of all recent changes in a space,section, or other location.

Recent posts Viewer Displays a list of all recently added or modifiedblog posts.

Recent changes Viewer Displays a list of all recently added or modifiedcomments in a space, section, or other location.

Recent pages Viewer Displays a list of all recently added or modifiedpages in a wiki.

Recent files Viewer Displays a list of all recently added or modifiedfiles in a space, section, or other location.

Recent topics Viewer Displays a list of all recently added or modifieddiscussion topics in a space, section, or otherlocation.

Feed Viewer Displays a list of entries for an RSS feed.Users can subscribe to RSS feeds internal toCenterStage as well as subscribe to external RSSfeeds. Users can add these feeds to any of theirpages in CenterStage.

Image Viewer Displays an image. If the user selects a folder asthe source, each of the images in the folder canbe displayed one at a time using the navigationcontrols at the bottom of the widget.

Document Viewer Displays a document fromwithin the repository.

Tagged Content Viewer Displays a list of items in the current space thatshare a specific tag.

Popular Tags Viewer Displays a tag cloud, which is a list of the mostpopularly used tags with each tag’s level ofpopularity indicated by the tag’s font size.

Understanding pagesPages are containers for widgets where users view and edit content. For example, a blog pagecontains widgets that support blog functionality.



A page can have content widgets and can have attached files. Attached files can come from internalor external sources. Files from external sources can be imported into CenterStage.

Each page in CenterStage belongs to a section.

Understanding sectionsA section is a collection of pages within a space, with a specific page designated as the section’s homepage. When displayed in the navigation area, a section appears in a tree hierarchy. Sections aretop‑level objects, and cannot be stored in folders or be children of other sections.



Wikis, blogs, and discussions are all examples of CenterStage sections.

Understanding spacesA space is a CenterStage destination created for a specific goal. Members achieve the goal throughcreating and sharing content and information. Each space has a set of policies that define suchparameters as security, versioning, and notification. A space can also be subject to retention policiesmanaged through the Retention Policy Administration client. A space’s membership is either opento all the repository’s users or restricted to specific users by invitation only. Each space member isassigned a user role that defines the user’s access to content and actions. Users with the appropriatepermissions can create new spaces within a repository and can save existing spaces as new spacetemplates.

Once users are logged in, they can navigate to spaces. Spaces open as tabbed panels in CenterStageand can be either public or private, as described in Table 4, page 40.



Table 4. Public and private spaces

Type of space Description

Public Public spaces are open to all CenterStage users and open the flowof information, avoiding the segregation of information into silos.

Private Private spaces restrict access to information that has securityrequirements. Whereas a public space can be seen by allCenterStage users, both from within and from without theorganization, a private space is restricted to specific users byinvitation only.

Understanding users and permissionsA CenterStage user is a person with a unique login account to at least one CenterStage repository.System administrators create user accounts. Administrators can create CenterStage accounts both forintranet users as well as users outside the firewall.

The CenterStage user has automatic membership in all the repository’s public spaces and mighthave membership in one or more of the repository’s private spaces. Within each space, the userhas an assigned role that determines the user’s permissions for performing actions and accessinginformation.

Permissions are granted on a per object basis. Each object in a space, including each location, isassigned an access control list (ACL) that defines the actions users of each role can perform on theobject. CenterStage assigns an object an ACL at creation. By default, CenterStage assigns the ACLof the space to a new object created in that space. A user with adequate permissions can changean object’s ACL.

There are four permission levels in CenterStage, each of which is based on a combination ofDocumentum basic and extended permissions. Permission levels are cumulative: each level allowsthe rights granted to the levels below it. The four permission levels are described in Table 5, page 40.

Table 5. Permission levels in CenterStage

CenterStage permission level Documentum permissionlevel

What you can do with thisright

None (only for the space’s ACL) None Nothing, not even see the object

Read Read Can:• view an item (includingopening a file for viewing)

• see the item’s versions andversion comments

• open a folder



CenterStage permission level Documentum permissionlevel

What you can do with thisright

• create comments (optionally,and can be different forindividual ACLs)

Can’t:• create items

• copy or move items

Create Relate + Change Folder Links Read + create an item, and openthe item, and create commentson the item, but can’t move ordelete other people’s content

Edit Write + Change Location(except for section‑levelcontent), Change State

Create + can edit and move theitem, and change its lifecyclestate

Delete Delete + Change Location(including section‑levelcontent), Change State, ChangePermissions

Edit + can delete the item

CenterStage provides standard roles that grant these permissions to members with that role. Theroles and their permissions are listed in Table 6, page 41

Table 6. CenterStage Roles

CenterStage Permission

CenterStage Role Public Space Private Space

Participant Edit Edit

Coordinator Edit (plus special coordinatorrights*)

Edit (plus special coordinatorrights*)

Content Owner Delete + Change Ownership Delete + Change Ownership

New custom roles Edit Edit

*Regardless of the Coordinator role’s permission level, it always has these extended permissions:• Extended Delete

• DCTM Browse permission (to let the coordinator see an item, even if the role group is removedfrom an item’s ACL)

• Change Owner

• Change Permissions

• Change Location

• Change State

• Change Folder Links



In addition, coordinators can always manage members, and create/delete custom roles.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

By default, SSL is not enabled in CenterStage. Over HTTP, passwords are sent in clear text when SSLis not enabled. EMC recommends that customers enable SSL to provide secure transmission ofsensitive data, such as authentication credentials.

For more information, see the EMC Documentum Content Server Administration Guide, ManagingUser Authentication.

Understanding the content libraryThe content library is the collection of the space’s content. Users browse through the content of thespace using the following navigational schemes:

• Browse for content

• Use filters to find content

Filters are based on characteristics of content that have particular values, such as location,size, or file format. Users can filter a list of content by selecting one or more of the predefinedfilters. As an example, a user might select a filter value that displays only text documents. Theuser might further narrow the list by selecting a filter value that displays content created onlywithin the last week.

Wikis

A wiki is a document users can edit directly in the web browser. A wiki consists of content embeddeddirectly on the web page. A wiki differs from a traditional document in that the latter is an uploadedfile that members must first download before viewing or editing. Wikis streamline editing andimprove collaboration. With wikis, users can create and edit content right in‑place and do not need,for example, a common word‑processing application to work together on content.

Anatomy of a wiki page

A standard wiki page is constructed from the following widgets.

• Breadcrumbs — show the current location within the page hierarchy

• Page actions — provide access to commands specific to working with the current type of page

• Widget toolbar — a toolbar that provides access to commands associated with the current activewidget

• Navigation — collapsible viewer that presents the folder hierarchy in a traditional tree view



• Page content — contains the wiki page’s content, title, other information about the page, andlinks to the other page views

• Tag editor — contains tags that allow users to locate information based on informal, arbitrarycriteria

• Comments — a collapsible viewer for users where users comment on the content of the wiki page

Figure 23. Widgets that comprise a wiki page

Wikis are the model on which all sections are based. Blogs and discussions share the features ofa wiki, with additional capabilities.

Blogs

A blog is a section with specialized pages for rolling up content from a series of pages in reversechronological order.



Anatomy of a blog

A blog is a section that contains several specialized page types to support journal‑style entries madeby a user or group of users: the blog home page, the blog post page, and the blog archive page.

The blog home page contains the following widgets.

• Blog roll‑up widget — shows all posts made to the blog. All posts are displayed in reversechronological order. Each post falls under a date heading.

• Rich Text widget — for editing and displaying the description of the blog

• Popular Tags widget — displays tags in use in the blog, indicating popular tags by increasingthe font size for that entry

• Blog Archive widget — displays a list of blog archive pages, in reverse chronological order bymonth. This widget is not available on all pages, but only the blog home page, blog post pagesand the blog archive page.

Figure 24. Blog page widgets

When a user creates a new blog post or edits an existing post, the blog post page displays the contentof the entry. The blog post page contains the following widgets.

• Rich text widgets — for editing the post and displaying the welcome message for the blog

• Tag cloud widget — displays the tags in use in the blog

• Blog archive widget — lists the archived blog posts



Figure 25. Blog post page widgets

When a user clicks an entry in the blog archive list, the blog archive page displays all of the posts forthe selected month in reverse chronological order. The blog archive page contains the same widgetsin the same configuration as the blog home page.

Understanding templatesCenterStage includes a starter set of templates. Table 7, page 45 describes template types.

Table 7. Template types

Template type Description

Space template Space templates are collections of pages, widgets, layouts,business logic, and content tailored to address the needs andrequirements of a specific business process or task set.



Template type Description

Wiki template Wiki templates provide pages and content for new sections. Awiki template is tailored to a particular purpose, such as projectmanagement, project specification, documentation, etc.

Page template Page templates provide layout, widgets, content, attachments,tags, and properties for new pages. Templates can include avalue for the layout type property, determining whether userscan change the layout of a new page.

When a page cannot be changed, users cannot add, remove,reposition, or re‑size widgets, nor can they change the numberof columns.

Working with CenterStage pluginsThe following plug‑ins provide enhanced features for CenterStage that allow users to copy and pasteto the desktop via the desktop clipboard. It also allows users to seamlessly edit files, then importthem back to the repository.

Table 8. CenterStage plugins

Plug‑in Description

CTA applet The CTA applet downloads/installs/upgrades other components(UCF Client, CTA Java application, FileWatcher.exe,DmDataTransfer.dll). It provides a file chooser dialog thatallows users to select multiple files at once, and launches andmanages communication with the CTA application.

UCF client The UCF client is a separate Java application launched by theCTA application to perform content transfer with UCF serveron the application server (or an ACS or BOCS server). This isthe same UCF Client used by Documentum Administrator andother EMC applications.

CTA Java Application This is an applet that orchestrates a single content transferoperation using DFS and the UCF Client.

FileWatcher.exe FileWatcher is a Win32 application launched by UCF Client viaCTA to monitor a file being edited on the Windows desktop.When the editing application closes, FileWatcher launches aCTA instance to check in the file, and then terminates.

DmDataTransfer.dll This is an ActiveX control that loads in Internet Explorer (IE)just after logging in to CenterStage that allows the CenterStageuser to interact with the Windows desktop clipboard. Note thatthere is currently no XPI wrapper for Firefox, so this is only



Plug‑in Descriptionavailable on Windows with IE. More specifically, this controlallows the CenterStage user to:1. Copy items in CenterStage to the desktop clipboard. If the

user then pastes such an item into an application such asMS Word, the result is a link (that is, a fully qualified URL)to the CenterStage item. If the user pastes one or more fileitems onto the desktop or into a folder using WindowsExplorer, the files are first downloaded using CTA, andthen moved into the target location. This happens in thebackground, allowing the CenterStage user to continue touse the browser while the files are being downloaded.

2. Copy file items from the desktop clipboard into CenterStage.If the user pastes file items on the desktop clipboard toa CenterStage content folder, the ʺImport Filesʺ dialogappears and is automatically populated with the files fromthe clipboard. Once all required information for each filehas been specified in the Import Files dialog, the files arethen uploaded into the target content folder in CenterStage.




Chapter 4CenterStage Architectural Overview

This chapter describes the underlying infrastructure of the CenterStage application.

CenterStage is built using the EMC Documentum Foundation Services (DFS) toolkit. CenterStageembeds a subset of the EMC Documentum platform functionality, which provides CenterStage withits infrastructure, data model, and core services.

Understanding the CenterStage infrastructureThe infrastructure of CenterStage can be roughly described in terms of a server tier, core services tier,application server tier, and a user interface tier.


CenterStage Architectural Overview

Figure 26. CenterStage infrastructure abstract

Understanding the server tier

CenterStage’s server tier includes the following servers, which are leveraged from the EMCDocumentum platform:

• Content Server

This provides data model management, security services, and content management services.

• Full text index server

This server provides full‑text search functionality.

• Thumbnail Generator

Thumbnail Generator creates single‑page thumbnails for images, PDF, and Microsoft Officedocuments. The generated thumbnails are used in various parts of the application to providepreviews of content. CenterStage provides inline viewers that display the first page of a documentwith the Thumbnail Generator, but can provide full document viewing capabilities after anupgrade to MTS (Media Transformation Services)/ADTS (Advanced Document TransformationServices).



• Federated Search server

This lets users search across multiple sources and aggregate the results of the search.

CenterStage Pro also provides search adapters for Documentum ECM 5 and 6; eRoom 7;ApplicationXtender 4.6 and 5.2; EmailXtender 4.7 and 4.8; ODBC/JDBC; Google.com; GoogleDesktop Enterprise 3, 4 and 5; OpenDirectory; Yahoo OpenSearch 1.0; and Shared Drive Indexer.Additional add‑on adapters can be purchased separately.

• Content Intelligence Services

Content Intelligence Services (CIS) is able to infer additional details from information that exists inthe repository. For example, if the city is known, CIS can return information such as the county,state, province, or country.

Intelligent entity extraction is available for companies, locations, and people. This is notconfigurable. Cartridges provide definitions for particular extraction domains (for example,locations). When users search for a particular location, the cartridge enables the search to inferthe country, state, county, city, etc. This provides more reliable search results, even if the criteriaentered are not precise matches.

A single cartridge, named Text Mining 360, is used in CenterStage 1.0 to extract the three entitiesfrom text. Once extracted, entities are associated with the content (page, document, etc.), andappear in filters. They are also added to the content index, so that each search is improved as youdescribe the items you seek.

Understanding the core services tier

CenterStage’s core services include CenterStage application services, which are built on DocumentumFoundation Services (DFS). DFS provides CenterStage with the server API, application services,and the means for validating customizations.

Developers can customize CenterStage using the EMC Documentum Business Object Framework(BOF), which is part of the Documentum Foundation Classes (DFC). BOF centralizes customizedbusiness logic. The only way to communicate with this layer is through DFC.

CenterStage provides standard content management features expected from Documentumapplications (secure access and versioning capabilities in a central repository). Security Servicesprotect data assets by handling permissions for groups and individuals at a global level, hierarchically,and on a document‑by‑document basis. Policy services help to ensure that documents are handledaccording to government regulations and best business practices. In addition, CenterStage leveragesthe following EMC Documentum services, each in its own Documentum Archive (DAR) file:

• Collaboration Services 6.5 DAR

The core collaboration infrastructure

• Extended Search‑Clustering DAR

Searches internal and external sources from a single search field, and automatically classify, index,extract, and route content to support reuse and policy‑based management.

• Documentum Collaboration Services (DCS) Attachments 6.5 DAR



Provides support for adding an attachments folder to any object type. Email messages use thisto store their attachments.

• Rich_Media_Services DAR and Transformation DAR

Rich media and transformation services for thumbnail previews of CenterStage documents

• CIS Artifacts DAR. Content Intelligence Services provide the core set of services for search andclustering capabilities. This DAR contains data structures used for entity storage by the CIS server,and entity filters for computation used by the search service.

• CenterStage DAR and CenterStage_Pro DAR

Data model and supporting services to support CenterStage application functionality

Understanding the application server tier

CenterStage achieves service binding through either DWR, REST or SOAP, depending on the userinterface technology leveraged in a particular user interface widget.

CenterStage provides two plug‑ins on the client tier:

• The Unified Client Facilities (UCF) content‑transfer plug‑in, available for both Mac and Windowsoperating systems. This plug‑in is a Java applet that provides a seamless integration betweenCenterStage and the user’s desktop when the user works with files. The UCF plug‑in also givesaccess to EMC Documentum’s Accelerated Content Services (ACS) and Branch Office CachingServices (BOCS). Each user chooses whether to enable the UCF plug‑in or use HTTP for contenttransfer.

• The plug‑in for integration with the Windows clipboard, available only for Windows operatingsystems.

CenterStage services are stateless, with the exception of the UCF plug‑in.

CenterStage functionality is deployed using a WAR file. The application server tier can leverage allof the facilities of modern application servers including clustering, high availability, and failoverservices.

Understanding the user interface infrastructure

CenterStage is a rich internet application that uses browser‑based technologies to render the interfaceand to bind services. CenterStage uses a thin interface structure and leverages the Ext JS 2.2 toolkit tobuild the interface. Developers can build interface widgets from JavaScript using Ext JS or anotherenvironment, or from Flex using the Flex environment.

CenterStage application services are built on EMC Documentum Foundation Services (DFS). Theyprovide coarse‑grained APIs to address the needs of the user interface (UI).

CenterStage includes the following services:

• Content management services



These handle the presentation layer requirements for the following:

— Widget delivery

This provides the widget registry and the configuration management for the widgets exposedin the CenterStage interface.

— Container manager

This is the infrastructure for managing the interface layouts.

— Bundle support

This is the packaging and deployment model. Bundle support leverages the OSGi ServicePlatform.

• CenterStage Essentials and CenterStage Pro application services

These services provide a broad set of APIs to address the needs of the UI and support teamproductivity, information discovery, business processes, and Web 2.0 functionality.

Understanding the CenterStage object model

Object model overview

CenterStage foundation services provide application functionality to clients in the DocumentumD6 platform. Delivered using DFS 6.5 runtime and services, CenterStage foundation services areavailable to any WS‑* client.

CenterStage Foundation Services use not only new object types, but also aspects to create the objectmodel (aspects are dynamic modules that enhance standard Documentum objects with extendedproperties and behaviors). This reduces redundancy in customizations, and enables CenterStagefunctionality to be used with existing custom objects.

CenterStage Foundation Services provide additional functionality and flexibility with new objectsrepresenting specialized Pages, Sections, and Spaces. CenterStage objects are described in the tableTable 9, page 53.

Table 9. CenterStage object model overview

Object Name Object Type Name Key Attributes Description

Space dmc_room • r_object_id =dmc_room

• a_application_type= dm_kw_space

Represents aCenterStage space.




Folder dm_folder • r_object_id =dm_folder

• a_application_type= [empty]

Represents aCenterStage folder.This object can besub‑typed, and the UIwill properly reflectthe type behavior.

File dm_document • r_object_id =dm_document

• a_application_type= [empty]

Represents a fileattached to a pagein CenterStage.This object can besub‑typed, and the UIwill properly reflectthe type behavior.

Wiki/Section dm_folder • r_object_id=dm_folder

• a_application_type= dmc_kw_section

Sections are a specialtype of page object.Because a section isa page, the “homepage” of a section isthe section itself. Thesection is always atop‑level object, andcannot be the childof another section orstored in a folder. Thesection aspect doesnot have any customattributes.

Page dm_folder • r_object_id =dm_folder

• a_application_type= dmc_kw_page

A page is acontainer for contentin CenterStageFoundation Services. Itcontains a combinationof widgets fordisplaying rich text,images, data tables,and other content.

Blog dmc_kw_blog • r_object_id =dmc_kw_blog


A blog is a section thathas been enhancedto handle web logactivities.

Blog Post dmc_kw_blog_entry • r_object_id = dmc_kw_blog_entry


A special object typeis used to store theindividual entries thatgo into a blog archive.




Discussion dmc_discussion • r_object_id =dmc_discussion


A discussion is createdwith a dmc_discussiontype object with thedm_kw_section objectattached.

Topic dmc_topic • r_object_id =dmc_topic


Individual entriesin a discussionare modeled asdmc_topic objectswith the attacheddmc_kw_page aspect.

Tag dmc_sys_object • r_object_id =dm_sys_object

• a_application_type= dm_kw_tag

A tag is an object in thesystem that annotatesanother object, calledthe target object. Aninstance of a tag isdefined as a relationobject between thetag and the target.This relationshipis modeled inDocumentum usinga dm_relation object.

Feeds

CenterStage Foundation Services provides a feed service that allows clients to generate “news” feedsin popular formats such as RSS or Atom. The service returns repository data in a standard format,but it is up to the service consumer to convert that data into a standard feed format.

Understanding permissions in CenterStageContent in spaces is governed by an Access Control List (ACL) that controls who has access to thecontent in the space based on users’ assigned roles.

Space ACLs

By default, all content in the space points to the ACL of its parent section or space.



Figure 27. Space ACL

Folders and documents in those folders point to the ACL of the space. Documents that live at thespace level, but are not associated with a folder, also point to the ACL of the space.

Figure 28. Section ACL

All sections have their own ACL, which is a copy of the ACL of their parent space at the time thesection is created. Pages that have not changed their ACL point to the ACL of their parent section.



Custom ACLs

Custom ACLs can be created at the content level on a case‑by‑case basis. They can be created for alllevels of content, including sections, pages, attachments, folders, and documents.

Customizing ACLs for sections

Since sections already have an ACL attached to them, customizing the ACL for a section does notresult in the creation of a new ACL. Pages point to their parent section’s ACL by default.

The ACL of a section is based on that of its parent space. New users cannot be added to the section’sACL if they are not already members of the space.

Customizing ACLs for pages and child pages

When a custom ACL is created on a page level, the relationship with the parent section’s ACL isbroken, and a new ACL for the page is created.

Creating a custom ACL on the page level starts with the ACL of the parent section as its source. Userswith access to the page are limited to those who already had access to the section.

The notion of restriction of permissions applies only to restricting the access list of participantsitself, not the level of permissions available for those who access a page or an attachment to thepage. It is entirely possible to grant Write access to a user of a page who only has Read access to thesection the page is in.

Note: All attachments point to the ACL of their parent page, either the section if the ACL of theparent is unchanged, or of the page itself if the page has a custom ACL. An attachment can also havea custom ACL. In this case, changes to the ACL of the page will not affect the attachment with thecustom ACL. In all cases, it is possible to revert the ACL of the attachment to that of the parent page.

Custom ACLs for folders

As with sections and pages, folders and documents can use custom ACLs. Again, folders anddocuments at the space level point to the ACL of their space. When a user creates a custom ACLfor a folder, the custom ACL applies only to the folder and not to any documents within it. If a userwants the documents in the folder to use the custom ACL of the folder they are in, the ACL must beassigned to each document individually.

Moving pages

When a page is moved to a section with a custom ACL, the page points to the ACL of the new section.



Moving sections

Sections can only be moved within their own spaces; the ACL is unaffected by rearranging a sectionin a space.

Moving folders

When a user moves a folder into another folder, the ACL of the folder remains unchanged.

Moving documents

When a user moves a document from one folder to another, or from the space level into a folder, thedocument’s ACL remains unchanged. However, when a user moves a document from either thespace level or from a folder to a page as an attachment, the document points to the ACL of the page inwhich it has been placed, just like any other attachment.

Sharing content

If a Participant or Content Owner has Write access to a piece of content, be it an attachment to apage, a page, or a section, they can share it with other members of the space. If they want to sharecontent with another user, they will have to request space membership, without privileges for allcontent, for the user with whom they want to share the content, then grant desired permissions tothe specific user for the specific content item.

Note: In this model, it is entirely possible to grant Write access to a user of a page in a section forwhich the user has Read access.

Sharing pages, documents, and attachments

Sharing pages is like sharing any other type of content, with two key differences

• Adding widgets

A potential method for sharing an attachment with those that do not have access to it is byadding a widget to a page that has a source attachment from an area to which the user does nothave access. If a component is added to a page whose source attachment is limited in this way,CenterStage prompts the user sharing the page to request access for those users who might not beable to see the data. Only users who have View access to the data in both the page upon which thewidget has been placed and the source data of the widget will be able to see all the data.

In the case that a user has View access to a page, but no access or more limited access to thedata of one of the widgets on it, the user sees the widget shell with whatever data the user haspermission to see. Users who do not have access to the widget data source at all, but have View



access to the page the viewer is on, see an empty widget shell and are prompted to request accessto see more information.

• Linking to pages

In the case that a user views a page with a link to a page to which the user does not have Viewaccess, but does have Browse access, clicking on the link results in a prompt to the user to requestaccess to the page. If the user does not have Browse access to the page that is linked, no link to thepage is displayed; however, in the case of rich text, the text the link is attached to is visible.

Sharing sections

Sharing sections with users outside of the space member list is similar to sharing pages withnon‑space‑members. To do this, the user requests space membership for the non‑member they wantto share with, and grant access to that particular section. Granting access to a section implies thataccess to all pages is granted, with the exception of those pages with a custom, more restrictive ACL.The same policies that apply to pages with regard to linking to pages and including widgets inpages in the section also apply.




Index

Aactivity

recent activity widget, 37architecture

overview, 49

Bblogs

overview, 43recent blog posts widget, 37

Ccolumn boxes

widgets, 36content

blogs, 43filters, 42library, 42overview, 42RSS feeds, 37widgets, 36wikis, 42

Ddocuments

widgets, 37

Ffiles

recent files widget, 37recent topics widget, 37

filtersoverview, 42

folderswidget, 37

Ggroup boxes

widgets, 36

Iimages

widgets, 37

Ppages

recent pages widget, 37widget, 36

permissionsoverview, 40

Rrecent items

widgets, 37rich text

widget, 37roles

overview, 40RSS feeds

widgets, 37

Sspaces

recent spaces widget, 37

Ttemplates

types, 45

Uusers

overview, 40


Index

Wwidgets

on pages, 36

wikisoverview, 42
