FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- What is APLAWS+?
- What is the difference between existing APLAWS sites and APLAWS+?
- How can I migrate from an existing APLAWS site to APLAWS+?
- What support contracts are required for APLAWS+?
- What hardware do I need to deploy APLAWS+?
- Is APLAWS suitable for an Intranet site?
- Why HTML4.01 rather than XHTML?
- Can I run PostgreSQL on a Windows architecture?
- Why has PostgreSQL and not MySQL, which seems quite popular?
Answers....
What is APLAWS+?
APLAWS+ is the name of the "bundle" of software that forms the APLAWS+ Content Management System. The "+" simply indicates that is has been part of a major reworking and could easily have been a new release version number.
What is the difference between existing APLAWS sites and APLAWS+?
The main difference are the changes that have been made as part of the LAWs National Project. The main visible difference is the improved back-end authoring process, which is far easier and more functional with the new release. In addition the system has improved XML, which essentially means that any existing APLAWS XSLtemplates need to be re-written in the move towards an APLAWS+ upgrade - thisunfortunate upgrade requirement was necessary to improve the code overall, sothat the XML was easier to work with for typical web teams. One of thebest improvements of the APLAWS+ code is that it allows for easier packaging and sharing of content types - this was not easily possible with the previous codebase.
How can I migrate from an existing APLAWS site to APLAWS+?
As at March 2004 some work has been done migrating from APLAWS to the new APLAWS+ code (e.g. London Borough of Camden). The major issue is the "state" of the data within the complexities of the Content Management System's various options, e.g. if you have content that is considerably devolved, has security restrictions and is assigned to a complex workflow then it will be more difficult to migrate than content assigned to a single user with a one-step workflow.
Nevertheless, the new APLAWS+ "Bulk Uploader" functionality allows for the import of XML content against a specific schema, so the data itself should be able to be imported quite easily. For those that want to keep complex states within this data, there are suppliers that will be able to undertake this work. The more complex the configuration, the more complex the migration scripts - and therefore the higher the cost.
It may well be an approach that upgrading to a new system allows a fresh look at the content and it is used as an opportunity to alter where content was and review the "state" the content was in.
What support contracts are required for APLAWS+?
A support contract is not required for APLAWS+. A support contract is a matter of choice on whether a technology partner is required to provide services on demand around the product. Many suppliers provide and offer services around APLAWS+, but, as an open source product, the choice of how to mix an match is an individual one.
What hardware do I need to deploy APLAWS+?
Any hardware that can run the recommended environments:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 or 7, Postgres 8.4 or later, Oracle or OpenJDK Java Runtime 1.6 or later, any standard compliant servlet container (e.g. Apache Tomcat)
Is APLAWS suitable for an Intranet site?
Yes. There are several authorities using APLAWS as an intranet. The main issue revolves around having a clear policy on document management and making decisions around a well integrated solution, APLAWS, after all, is designed as a web content management system.
Why HTML4.01 rather than XHTML?
There are no killer reasons to switch to using XHTML instead of HTML at this time. Indeed it would lower accessibility of APLAWS since browser support for XHTML is considerably worse than that for traditional HTML. An article on http://www.alistapart.com/articles/xhtml, A List Apart provides more information. If after reading this, you did still want to generate XHTML, it would be a simple matter to change the xsl:output tags in the XSL templates used for presenting APLAWS
The next version of APLAWS+ will build upon html5.
Can I run PostgreSQL on a Windows architecture?
The main PostgreSQL project provides native Windows binaries ready to install.
Why has PostgreSQL and not MySQL, which seems quite popular
The biggest issue around good open source databases should be how they stack up against proprietary databases, such as Oracle. That's the real debate. Nevertheless, specifically for APLAWS+, MySQL doesn't support various standard SQL features all of which are very heavily used in CCM
