Introduction of aWeb-CMS

(Content Management System)to a HEP environment

Carsten Germer

DESY IT WebOffice

2006-15-03 – Carsten Germer CMS @ DESY IT–Systems 2

The Project

Web Office @ DESY since 2003 Project of IT and PR Planning and staffing started 2002 Manpower

1 Concept / Programmer (CMS)

1 Concept / Editorial Staff

1 Programmer (Building Sites)

1 Technician (Hardware and System)

{Joined in later due to complexity of cluster-system}

Funding for Consulting (Technical and graphics)

{Graphics was to be handled inhouse, which proved to be impractical}

2006-15-03 – Carsten Germer CMS @ DESY IT–Systems 3

Where did we start from

Over 70 public accessable webservers

Uncounted internal webservers with a variety of functionality

Some single Websites with more the 2500 pages

No common design, neither in graphics nor in navigation

Many Pages/Trees/Sites far from UpToDate

No central support possible

HTML, WebObjects, Mini-CMS, EmbPerl, C/C++, Java ...

Solaris, Linux, Windows ...

- Apache, IIS, ...

2006-15-03 – Carsten Germer CMS @ DESY IT–Systems 4

PreStart Requirements

Mass hosting (license model)

Scalability (license model)

Multi Language

Blueprints and packages for quick setup of new sites

Quickly have real sites for testing

Iterative development

Interfaces to existing backend systems

Incorporation of existing (web-)functionality

Design and core functions to be managed centrally

2006-15-03 – Carsten Germer CMS @ DESY IT–Systems 5

Software chosen

Python application server "Zope" http://www.zope.org/

Content Management System "ZMS" http://www.zms-publishing.com/

Completely Open Source Huge community world wide Many big installations of Zope up and running Professional consulting available Easy to extend Many special requirements already available as

AddOns

2006-15-03 – Carsten Germer CMS @ DESY IT–Systems 6

Building, Phase I

Single Machine (with failover)

Sites built with common functionality

No centrally managed objects

Allowance for easy changes and extensions

Design according to DESY-CI

No centrally managed templates

Allowance for easy tweaking due to functionality

2006-15-03 – Carsten Germer CMS @ DESY IT–Systems 7

Lessons learned from Phase I

Learning a lot from groups and editorial staff

"Test"-websites swiftly used as productive systems

Functionality refined

Phase 1 lasted almost two years

Need of more technical support

Need of dedicated user support

2006-15-03 – Carsten Germer CMS @ DESY IT–Systems 8

Building, Phase II

Cluster with 6+ machines

Design according to DESY-CI through central templates

All extra functionality through central "Special Objects"

• Users and groups from DESY-Registry

• PlugIn of MS-Exchange calendars

• Easy integration of existing web-functionality

• Access into and incorporation of files from AFS

• Much more

Giving back all developed code into Open Source

2006-15-03 – Carsten Germer CMS @ DESY IT–Systems 9

Let‘s have a look!

http://zmsdemo.desy.de/

http://wof.desy.de/

http://fls2006.desy.de/

2006-15-03 – Carsten Germer CMS @ DESY IT–Systems 10

Thanks for listening.

Questions?

http://www.zope.org/

http://www.zms-publishing.com/

http://zmsdemo.desy.de/

2006-15-03 – Carsten Germer CMS @ DESY IT–Systems 11

thank you for your attention

2006-15-03 – Carsten Germer CMS @ DESY IT–Systems 12

STOP