Book Image

Building Websites with OpenCms

Book Image

Building Websites with OpenCms

Overview of this book

This book takes you through the process of creating content-rich websites and applications using OpenCms. Although powerful and flexible, OpenCms can be daunting on first approach, but its advanced features reward the investment in learning. This book exists to ease Java developers into getting the most from OpenCms. OpenCms OpenCms is a professional-level, open source Website Content Management System, with which you can create and manage complex websites. Based on Java and XML technology, it fits into almost any modern IT environment. With hard-won experience of the practical difficulties faced by developers working with OpenCms, this book is the embodiment of the author's expertise, and the perfect way to master the system.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
Building Websites with OpenCms
Credits
About the Author
Introduction

The Virtual File System


Rather than store files under control of the CMS directly in the file system, OpenCms stores all the content in the database. Using a relational database (RDBMS) rather than the operating system's file system gives OpenCms three distinct functional advantages.

First, OpenCms code can make use of the RDBMS by creating richer metadata, relationships, and indexes than a standard file system could support. The tasks of a content management system are much more specialized than those of a general file system, and whereas the file system would be difficult to extend in such a way as to suit the specialized needs of a CMS application, a RDBMS provides all of the necessary tools for modeling, storing, and retrieving specialized content.

The second advantage of using an RDBMS is that access to the content can be controlled much more efficiently and securely. File-system-level access control falls under the domain of the operating system. This produces a problem: access control...