Implementation of Alfresco s document management software into University institution

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1 Implementation of Alfresco s document management software into University institution Siniša Zorica University Department of Professional Studies, University of Split, Republic of Croatia szorica@oss.unist.hr Lada Reić University Department of Professional Studies, University of Split, Republic of Croatia lada@oss.unist.hr Marinko Lipovac University Department of Professional Studies, University of Split, Republic of Croatia lipovac@oss.unist.hr Sandra Antunović Terzić University Department of Professional Studies, University of Split, Republic of Croatia santunov@oss.unist.hr Abstract. Nowadays the amount of information and documents in business is exponentially increasing and productivity depends significantly on the availability of the right information at the right time. The traditional way of doing business prevent systematic access and manipulation of information. Documents are often lost, employees spend too much time to get information and there is no easy way to manage security and access rights to documents and information. The solution lies in use of a content management system. Alfresco ECM (Enterprise Content Management) is the leading open source document management system. It offers document management, digital content management, record management, web content management, collaboration portal, business process management and more. The open source architecture allows a design of custom solutions and simple integration with other systems or office applications such as Microsoft Office or OpenOffice tools. Introduction to Alfresco and its functionalities suitable for implementation into University institution are given, including proposition of appropriate architecture. Key words: Alfresco, document management software, increase of productivity 1. Introduction Enterprise Content Management is the collection of strategies, methods, and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes [1], [2]. ECM systems use a repository, a number of different applications, and application development platforms to enable this control, access, and delivery of content. Content can be any unstructured information, such as documents, Web pages, images, video, records, or simple files [3]. The ECM system manages the content and its lifecycle the way a database management system manages data in a database. An ECM system manages the actual digital binary of the content, the metadata that describes its context, associations with other content, its place and classification in the repository, and the indexes for finding and accessing the content [4]. Just as important, the ECM system manages the processes and lifecycles of the content to ensure that this information is correct. The ECM system manages the workflows for capturing, storing, and distributing content, as well as the lifecycle for how P - 498

2 long content will be retained and what happens after that retention period. By managing content in an ECM system, organizations are generally able to reduce costs of manual processing, increase the accuracy of information, and aid the search and discovery of important documents and information. Alfresco is an open source Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system that manages all the content within enterprise: documents, images, photos, Web pages, records, XML documents, or any other unstructured or semi-structured file [5]. For end users, Alfresco appears as a suite of applications or extensions to their existing tools that manages their content. Alfresco exposes itself as though it were a shared drive to replace networked shared disk drives that have no organizational, search, or control mechanisms in place. Alfresco can replace networked shared drives with a store that organizes and controls information and provides a portal interface for searching and browsing content. By emulating the SharePoint protocol, Alfresco also helps users manage their office documents from within Microsoft Office by using the tools in the Office Suite designed to be used for Microsoft SharePoint. More importantly, Alfresco provides an out-of-the-box suite of applications to browse, search, manage, and collaborate on content in the repository. These applications include document management, Web content management, content collaboration, records management, and integration. These applications can supplement and can be supplemented by new applications developed on the Alfresco platform. For the business, Alfresco is designed to support the content requirements of a number of business critical processes and uses. The document management tools, applications, and interfaces support general office work, search, and discovery. The workflow management capabilities support numerous business processes, including case management and review and approval. The collaboration applications and services support the collaborative development of information and knowledge in the creation and refinement of content and documents. The scalable Web content management services support the delivery and deployment of content from the enterprise to its customers. The records management capability provides an affordable means to capture and preserve records based upon government-approved standards. The standards-based platform also provides access to applications that use these standards, such as publishing, image, and management. For the developer, Alfresco provides a full-featured, scalable repository and content management platform to simplify the development of the content-centric applications. Based on content management and Internet standards, Alfresco exposes the content management capabilities as services that can be accessed from REST-based or SOAP-based Web services, the new OASIS Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) standard Web-based services, or the PHP programming language. It can also be incorporated directly into a Javabased application with core Java services. In addition, Alfresco incorporates lightweight scripting languages that can access these services and provide a light weight programming model when speed of development is important. These services provide patterns similar to those used with databases, repositories, or user interface components, but have been extended for the unique challenges of content-centric applications (such as full text search and hierarchical content structures). Being open source, the platform is transparent, and the developer can peer into the internal repository patterns. Alfresco also provides a framework application that delivers much of what end users need, but can be extended by the developer for unique application logic and a customized user interface through Surf, CMIS, Web scripts, and Core Services. At the heart of the Alfresco system is the Content Application Server, which manages and maintains the Content Repository. The binary streams of content are stored in the repository and the associated full-text indexes are maintained by the Lucene indexes. Alfresco P - 499

3 applications are built upon the Content Application Server and rely on the Content Application Server to persist, access, query, and manage content. The Alfresco applications exist to provide the basic capabilities that most users need to manage content. The two main applications are Alfresco Share and Alfresco Explorer. The Alfresco system is available in two basic versions: Alfresco Enterprise Edition (Alfresco Content Services) and Alfresco Community Edition. Alfresco Community is completely free to use, but comes without any support from Alfresco. There are no service packs and hot fixes for this version, and there is no possibility of using advanced architectures such as high availability. The set of supported databases and application servers is significantly more limited than the Enterprise version. As with the Enterprise version, there is no explicit limit on the number of named users or simultaneous users. The Alfresco Community used in this paper also includes a Records Management Module required for advanced administration capabilities, defining metadata and security policies. 2. Administrative Office of the Department of Professional Studies Administrative office responsibilities include receiving and reviewing documents, sorting, scheduling and enrolling documents, submission of documents, administrative and technical processing of documents, dispatch of documents, archiving and storing documents. Document and mail admission is done through the department's administrative office and the staff member of the office has the authority to open all mail. Any irregularities established during the opening of the shipment should be described briefly (e.g. damaged shipment, number of documents marked on the envelope does not correspond to the received number of documents, sender information is not noted, etc.). Upon completion of the examination, the staff member must imprint stamp on each received document. In this imprint, staff member needs to write the date of receipt, the classification code, the registry book number, the total number of received documents, the total amount of money or other values attached to the document. Information about received and distributed documents is entered in the registry book. The registry book is based on the system of classification marks and registry book numbers. The classification mark is determined when registering the first document establishing the case, and the registry book number during the recording of a specific document. Registry book contains: a classification code, a brief description of the subject or a specific document, the name and the address of the sender, the registry book number of the document, the date of receipt of the document, the date of creation of the document, the mark of the internal organizational unit. The registry book is divided into nine units, according to the organizational units of the Department. Each unit is further divided according to the document type. The same structure of the registry book is listed below. Registry book number consists of four parts: / 08-1 city and organisation mark organisation unit and document type mark year of creation document ordinary number Classification mark consists of four parts: / classification by content year of creation classification by form ordinary number or student ID P - 500

4 By analysing business processes, it was decided that the most appropriate solution would be to apply the organizational structure of the folders so that each of the organizational units represents the main folder within which subfolders are created depending on the type of documents. Such a solution is actually a copy of how the organization is currently working through a registry book that is implemented in a way that individual Excel workbooks represent organizational units and worksheets within an Excel workbook represent a certain document group. In the same way, user groups could be defined, and each group (organizational unit) would have the appropriate access rights to their own part of the structure. In addition, a group of management members and persons with special roles in the organization could be created to provide insight into all documents of all organizational units. 3. Installation and Implementation of the Alfresco ECM The Alfresco Community Edition software is available for download from the developer site Alfresco offers two different content management user interfaces: Alfresco Explorer (http: // mysite / alfresco) and Alfresco Share (http: // mysite / share). Alfresco Explorer is the core of a content management system. Explorer lets you browse the repository, set up rules and actions, and manage content and its metadata, associations, and classifications. Alfresco Explorer was built using Java Server Faces and is integrated into the content application server. It also has extensive capabilities for managing the repository as a system administrator tool. Alfresco Share is a separate remote application which provides content management capabilities with simple user interfaces, tools to search and browse the repository, content such as thumbnails and associated metadata, previews using Flash renditions of content, and a set of collaboration tools such as Wikis, Discussions, and Blogs. Unlike Alfresco Explorer that is integrated into the Alfresco instance, Share can be installed on a remote computer and connect to a remote Alfresco repository. It is recommended that end users use the Share Interface, and the Explorer interface is more intended for system administrators. The interface is shown in Fig. 1. Figure 1 Alfresco administrator interface P - 501

5 By clicking the Customise dashboard button we can edit the interface layout, shown in Fig. 2. Figure 2 Changing the interface layout Dashlets are Alfresco tools. Records Management Config dashlet needs to be enabled in order to manage records. The easiest way to manage user groups is via Share interface, as shown in Fig. 3. It is possible to add new users and groups or manage existing. In addition to the input of basic data, it is possible to limit available disk space available for the user. Figure 3 Creating users and groups Sites are created within the repository and represent a virtual space for collaboration and resource sharing between users working on the same project or within the same organizational unit. The Site can be imagined as one folder of the repository in which page components are represented by different elements (wikis, blogs, documents, calendars, discussions, etc.). Site is created by selecting Sites -> Create Site on the My dashboard. P - 502

6 Figure 4 Creating site After the page is created, the created page control panel opens and the address in the web browser changes to as shown in Fig. 5. Figure 5 Site Control panel User can customize the site interface, add participants, or transfer documents and content for collaboration. It is possible to send an invitation to the group or particular users, and select their role: Manager (full permissions), Collaborator (permission to add and edit), Contributor (permission to add), Consumer (read only). Users can request to join or leave the Site. Document Library is the space within the page repositories where the hierarchy of document storage folders is placed, as shown in Fig. 6. P - 503

7 Figure 6 Document Library At the level of each folder/file there are various administration options shown in Figs. 7. and 8. Figure 7 Folder administration options Figure 8 File administration options Clicking on the document name displays all the properties of the selected document, available actions, versions, rights, workflows and comments, as well as a preview of the document itself, as shown in Fig. 9. Site members with sufficient levels of rights can collaborate and work on the same documents as the system monitors all document events and automatically creates different versions of that document. User can see all versions of the document, with an option to download or revert to the desired version. Another available option is using the workflow feature depicted in Fig. 10., to assign the document to another user for review. The first step is to select the Workflow type from the drop-down menu, then enter a message, possibly specify the date and priority of the task, and select the person for whom the task is intended. P - 504

8 Figure 9 Document preview and options Figure 10 Workflow window When the specified user logs in to the system, this task will be located among his tasks (My Tasks), as shown in Fig. 11. P - 505

9 4. Record Management Figure 11 My Tasks The concept of record management does not only prescribe the procedures of recording and classifying the file, but should, according to the definition of the 1989 American Records Management Association (ARMA), "... systematic supervision of all files, starting with their creation or receipt, through processing, distribution, storage and search, to the decision about their ultimate destiny ". The records management module depicted in Fig. 12., is accessed through the Records Management tool that needs to be enabled in My Dashboard. Records Management consists of a tool, i.e. dashlet, which, like the other sites in the Share environment, can track different activities on the page. What this page differs from is the menu below the page title that, instead of various collaboration and document management tools, offers File Plan options, Records Search, and Members review. Figure 12 Records Management Site File plan depicted in Fig. 13., represents the hierarchy of the records folder and is adapted to the DoD standard. First level maps are Series, second level folders represent Categories, and third level represents Folders in which records are stored. Records cannot be stored in any part of this hierarchy except in Folders. P - 506

10 Figure 13 Records Management Site File Plan Each of these series, categories, and folders has its own unique identifier, and it is also possible to define schedules and rules of disposition for the records they contain. When adding file to folder, system differs electronic or non-electronic record. For an electronic record, it is necessary to select the type of record (default, scanned, pdf, image, and web) and upload the file. To load non-electronic records, it is necessary to enter metadata describing the physical location on which the record is located. After uploading the file, it is displayed in the folder but is still marked as an undeclared record until the necessary metadata is described. Choosing the Records Search depicted in Fig 14., option from the menu below the page title, the window for entering the search conditions is open. From the drop-down menu, the metadata for which records will be searched need to be chosen. Figure 14 Searching Records It is important to know that when a document is under the control of the EDRM system, the document can be changed and modified by authorized users, whereas a record cannot be changed or modified at all. A document becomes a record when that particular document is archived. 5. Conclusion The growing volume, complexity and variety of digital content makes use of ECM application important element of University business. Alfresco is an open source content management system that helps in boosting document sharing, collaboration and more in an effective and efficient way. Alfresco supports document sharing, storage, workflows, and collaboration and P - 507

11 it is used as a publishing platform. Use of Alfresco ensures that every person knows what is to be expected and where a person concerned requires the input. Moreover, in a business, each of the employees is responsible for different tasks, and they usually end up carrying information in their heads or under a bundle of s. By using Alfresco, such a problem is mitigated by ensuring that the information with each employee is stored in an accessible repository. REFERENCES [1] Alalwan J.A., Weistroffer H.R. Enterprise content management research: a comprehensive review. Journal of Enterprise Information Management 2012;25: doi: / [2] Tyrväinen P., Päivärinta T., Salminen A., Iivari J. Characterizing the evolving research on enterprise content management. European Journal of Information Systems 2006;15: doi: /palgrave.ejis [3] Laumer S., Beimborn D., Maier C., Weinert C. Enterprise Content Management. Business & Information Systems Engineering 2013;5: doi: /s [4] Roszkiewicz R. Enterprise metadata management: How consolidation simplifies control. Journal of Digital Asset Management 2010;6: doi: /dam [5] Caruana D., editor. Professional Alfresco: practical solutions for enterprise content management. Inidianapolis, IN: Wiley Pub; P - 508