Syndication overview

 

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Syndication is the method used by IBM Lotus WCM to replicate data from a Web content library on one server to a Web content library on another server.

To enable syndication, a syndicator and a subscriber must be defined:

The relationship between a syndicator and a subscriber can be either a one-way or two-way relationship.

Example: One-way syndication

App1

App1 syndicates one or more libraries to App2.

App2 subscribes from App1.

App2

Example: Two-way syndication

App1

Both applications syndicate to each other.

Both applications subscribe from each other.

App2

Syndicators can syndicate libraries to multiple subscribers, and subscribers can subscribe to libraries from multiple syndicators.

Example: Multiple syndication relationships

App1

App2

Both App1 and 2 syndicate to App3.

App3 subscribes from both App1 and App2.

App3

 

Version consistency

All servers participating in syndication must be of the same version and the same WCM iFix and Fixpack level for syndication to work as expected and to be in a supported state. WebSphere Portal iFixes do not have to be the same across servers. For example:

 

Web content libraries and syndication relationships

All the items you work with as part of your WCM authoring environment (templates, components, content items, and so forth) are stored in Web content libraries. When you syndicate data between applications, you do so on a library by library basis. As part of the definition of a syndicator or subscriber, you specify which Web content libraries are to be included during syndication.

Because syndication is performed by library, it is important to consider how to organize your content between libraries to support your WCM environment.

For example, suppose you are using a single authoring server to develop content for two delivery servers, an intranet site providing HR information intended for internal employees of a company and an external Internet site providing marketing material intended for customers and others outside the company. A very basic approach to support this environment would be to use two Web content libraries, one for content specific to each site. You would then set up two syndication relationships with each going from the authoring server to the appropriate delivery server.

For easier management, you might divide your content further into three libraries, where one library contains data common to both the intranet and Internet sites and the other two libraries contain site-specific content. The following example demonstrates this configuration, with the addition of two other authoring portlets so that the content of each library is maintained by a different authoring portlet.

In this case you might set up several syndication relationships between the authoring server and the delivery servers:

  1. Common library syndicates to HR portal.
  2. Common library syndicates to marketing portal.
  3. HR library syndicates to HR portal.
  4. Marketing library syndicates to marketing portal.

To syndicate multiple libraries from one server to another, you can choose to use...

Use a single syndication relationship for libraries that reference each other, as when one library contains design items like templates that are used by content in the other library.

If the libraries are independent of one another and you think you might want to suspend syndication of one library but not the other, separate syndication relationships for each library can provide that.

First-time syndication to an existing library is not supported. If you attempt to syndicate a library to a subscriber that already has a library with the same name, an error results.

Information about a Library is only syndicated the first time syndication occurs and not on subsequent updates and rebuilds. If a library...

...this information is not syndicated to the Subscriber. Manually make the same changes to any subscriber libraries.

If content from LibraryA uses an item from LibraryB, include both libraries in the syndicator to ensure that all items are syndicated successfully.

If you add a new library to a syndicator after the initial syndication click Update to force the new library to be syndicated immediately.

 

Access control when syndicating

Although syndication can be used to keep data current between libraries on different servers, access control settings for the libraries are not included as part of syndication. Depending on how your environment is set up and what policies you have in place for library access, there are additional considerations for access control when using syndication.

First time syndication on a new library

Because access control settings are not part of syndication, manually set access permissions on the subscriber's library when syndicating for the first time. If the library does not exist on the subscriber, it will be created during syndication. By default, no access control settings are specified on the new library, so set them manually before users can access content in the new library. It is not required that the settings on the subscriber's library match those on the syndicator's library, because you might want to provide different access for users on the subscribing server.

View access permissions and resource access permissions

There are two types of permission associated with WCM:

  • View access permissions that affect whether resources can be viewed depending on the user's role

  • Resource permissions that apply to the objects themselves such as design elements and workflows, and affect whether the objects can be manipulated.

View access permissions are not included during syndication can be set differently on the syndicator and subscriber. However, resource access permissions are included during syndication. To ensure that these permissions work properly, both the syndicator and subscriber must have matching user registries (users and groups with the same distinguished names must exist on both servers).

 

Parent topic

Syndication