Document Manager integration with Web Content Management

Although all images and files can be created within Workplace Web Content Management, you might also want to consider using Document Manager in WebSphere Portal, depending on what you are trying to do.

The following table highlights feature differences between Workplace Web Content Management Resources and Document Manager to help you decide which approach you should take based on your specific requirements.

Table 1. Feature comparison between Workplace Web Content Management Resources and Document Manager in WebSphere Portal  

Feature	Web Content Management resources	Document manager
Supports versioning	Yes	Yes
Supports approval	Yes	Yes
API support	Yes (Web Content Management API)	Yes (Web Content Management and Document Manager API*)
Support creation from rich text editor	Yes	No
Can resize images during display	Yes	No
Syndicates automatically	Yes	No
Supports password-protected files	No	No
Desktop integration	No	Yes
Can perform conversion during display	No	Yes
Can be edited within application	No	Yes
Can be organized within folders	No	Yes
Can associate additional metadata	No	Yes

* The Document Manager API is provided under a Document of Understanding (DOU). Contact your IBM representative if this is required.

Handling syndication of Document Manager documents

Although syndication of content allows disparate server clusters to maintain the same level of content, it does not extend to documents that might be referenced with Document Manager components in Web Content Management. Ensure that these documents are transferred or published before syndicating the content.

Here is one way of ensuring that Document Manager documents are published first:

1. Create all Document Manager components in a separate library called an External Components library.
   Note: If you are already using All Live Items to syndicate the library that contains the rest of your components, then a separate library is not necessary.
2. Enable workflow on all components.
3. Use a Web Content Management workflow with a workflow stage that enables your components to be created in a Draft state initially.
4. Create a Syndicator/Subscriber pair. Select your External Components library in the Syndicator.
5. Select All Live Items as your Item gatherer in your Syndicator.
6. Refer to the information center topic 'Staging a document library to Production' for instructions on how to transfer your Document Manager documents.
7. In Web Content Management, approve your Document Manager components in the draft stage, as the transfer/publish process of the Document Manager documents completes successfully.

Note:

If you need to change an existing Document Manager document and have it staged with other Web Content Management-related changes, create a new Document Manager document and update the Document Manager component in Web Content Management to use the new Document Manager document. Then use the process above to deploy the changes and finally remove the old Document Manager document after the changes are published.