Re: [Hypercontent-users] Hypercontent integration with uPortal 2.5.1

[al <al...@bi...>]

Hi Paul,
I've embedded some responses below.

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:54:55 -0700, Paul Howard wrote

> * How exactly do these two products work together?

As Carl pointed out, there is no tight or required coupling between uPortal and HyperContent 2.  You 
can achieve single sign-on between the two using CAS, and you can use HyperContent to manage 
static or dynamic content that will be published as a Web Proxy or XML channel in uPortal; this is 
done by pointing uPortal to the URL of the content in HyperContent, or to the URL of a static build of 
that content produced by HyperContent.

> 
> * How much do I need to learn about uPortal in general and our  
> installation of it in particular in order to grok Hypercontent?

No knowledge of uPortal is required to grok HyperContent; it is required only if you desire to 
integrate some of the content into the portal.  See above.

> 
> * Is the idea to use the CMS to create/edit content that is intended 
>  to be served through a portal channel (e.g., news stories, etc.)?

This is a possible use case, though HC is often used to created & edit content that is destined for a 
regular non-portal site.  You can also publish the content to a static site and to an XML format such 
as RSS for repurposing content into the portal.

> 
> * Could it also be used to create/edit mainly static content, but  
> perhaps with a sidebar containing dynamic content generated by the  
> portal (similar to the concept of "modules" in a CMS like Drupal)?

HyperContent was originally developed with the intent of producing static content; it is also possible 
to deliver dynamic content thanks to the introduction of modal pipelines in HC 2.0.  HC does not 
have a strict notion of "modules", though one can take a variety of approaches in the design of XML 
and XSL to achieve such an effect. Some interesting integration can occur between static and 
dynamic content using AJAX to embed dynamic content in a static page.

> 
> * How exactly would one go about accomplishing either of these  
> scenarios?

See above.

> 
> * Is there some third way that I'm missing?

Depends where you want to get!  

> 
> The XML/XSLT template design process is also something of a mystery  
> to me. Is there a good tutorial somewhere for someone who already  
> knows how to turn design comps into XHTML CSS templates?

You can try 

http://www.w3schools.com/xsl/

Or do a google search for other alternatives. My favorite reference is 

http://www.zvon.org/xxl/XSLTreference/Output/

but it is not a tutorial!

> Finally, Hypercontent seems (to my eyes, anyway) to be similar in  
> design and execution to some other (more mature?) products like  
> OpenCMS and Apache's Lenya. Could someone explain to me what sets  
> Hypercontent apart from these other products?

As CMSs are becoming fairly commoditized, there is a tremendous amount of overlap in the 
functionality of these systems.  There are a few features unique to HC, such as vCard editing with 
LDAP integration and batch image processing (resizing & watermarking). From the UI perspective, the 
approach in HC2 of navigating using the site preview, with a management bar across the top, is 
unique and perhaps more user friendly than more abstracted directory or node based navigation 
schemes.  This is supported by anecdotal evidence from users who have migrated from HC 1.4 
(which had exclusively directory-based navigation) to 2.0.

Cheers,
Alex