Open source, sample connector between FrameMaker 11 and Adobe CQ now available!

Dear Framers,

Today, we are happy to announce the availability of the updated sample connector between FrameMaker 11 and Adobe CQ. You may recall that we had released a similar connector between FrameMaker 10 and CRX 2.2 sometime back (in case you are wondering about the difference between Adobe CQ and CRX, CQ is the web CMS and CRX is the content repository underneath. Read on for more details on this). Latest FrameMaker11-Adobe CQ connector is updated to support CQ 5.5 and CRX 2.3 repository, as well as the recently launched FrameMaker 11 (to learn more about what’s new in FrameMaker 11, see the blog post here).

So, what’s new in this connector? We have made significant improvements to the updated connector. Besides working with the latest version 11 of FrameMaker, the new connector also leverages the new “CMS connector framework” that we are providing to our developers in FrameMaker 11. Using this framework, developers will be able to build a more seamless connector to FrameMaker 11 and with less effort! The new connector has been built using this framework and hence, you will notice that the new CQ connector is more tightly integrated with FrameMaker and also, has several core functionality that you would expect. Furthermore, like with FrameMaker 10 connector, we are “open-sourcing” the new sample connector as well. So, anyone can take the source code and build upon it. More on this point below.

Lastly, the connector also provides integration with FrameMaker Publishing Server 11 (which is our automated, multi-channel publishing engine). So, not only you can manage your content with the connector, but also publish your documents stored on the CRX repository. Please read on to learn more about the connector, its functionality and how you can access the source code.

An Introduction to Adobe CQ

First of all, let us give a quick overview of the Adobe CQ platform. Content management system (CMS) has become an essential component of the technical communication systems. In addition to acting as a central repository for the content it provides functionality like meta-data search, version management, and business process management.

Adobe® CQ Web Content Management (WCM) is a platform for delivering engaging, cross-channel customer experiences to drive online business success. Adobe CQ WCM provides a productive, easy- to-learn authoring environment with support for in-place editing; drag-and-drop page composition from a rich library of web components; and intuitive controls for SEO, scheduled delivery, and landing page optimization including real-time A/B and multi variant tests.

CQ uses JSR-283-compliant CRX content repository. CRX is a state-of-the-art composite content applications platform, natively managing content in the Java Content Repository (JCR 2.0) content model.

FrameMaker 11- Adobe CQ connector

Using FDK 11, we have integrated Adobe CQ with FrameMaker 11. This integration supports CRX 2.2 and 2.3 content repositories. The Adobe CQ- FrameMaker11 plug-in allows user to Create Session, Upload files/ folders, Checkout and Edit files, Check-in files, maintain dependency, versioning and basic search. This plug-in interacts with CRX repository using JCR code. This FDK plug-in can also be used to interact with other CMS which are JCR compliant with small change in JCR sample code.

Architecture of how FrameMaker 11 interacts with Adobe CQ

https://blog.adobe.com/media_9fcfec3b72487c557135c147578acd9603412732.gif

Key functionality available in the sample connector

1. **Create Session and Logout: **User can create a CQ session with the help of connection manager UI. After successful login, user can work on various other features like checkin, checkout etc.

2. **Repository Browser: **The repository browsing functionality will help user in browsing the contents of the CQ Server. The content shown in the repository browser will be of following types.

Node: A node is a hierarchical entity in the workspace. Node can be container or non- container. Each container node contains folder and files. The folders can further contains sub-folders and/or files. Depending on the node type, a node may have required or optional sub-nodes and properties.
Property: A property is a content entity. Properties can store text data and numbers

3. Upload Functionality:

Document: User will be able to upload a local file to the CQ Server. This operation will be also called import. Upload operation also takes entire hierarchy to which gets uploaded to the repository.User can also upload active file.
Folder: User will be able to upload a folder and its contents to the CQ Server. Upload folder operation also takes entire hierarchy to which gets uploaded to the repository.

4. File related features:

Open Read-Only: User can open a file from the repository without checking it out. On read only operation the document and its dependents will be downloaded to the local cached in read only mode. The file will be opened in the FM.
Checkout and Edit: User will be able to checkout the file and its dependents from the CQ server. The edit operation will open the file for editing if it is checked out.
Checkin: User will be able to checkin the checkout file and its all dependents as minor version to repository.
Cancel Checkout: User can cancel checkout a file and its dependents.

5. **Delete: **User can delete a folder, a file or file with all dependents.

6. **Create Folder: **User will be able to create a new folder in the CQ server or the folder in the repository

7. File Information Features:

Show Checkout Files: This option will list all the documents which are checked out in the selected object.
Show Dependents: This option will list all the dependencies of the selected document include the dependency on the dependents documents.
Show Versions: This option will list all the versions of a document. The user will be able to see the properties of selected object from the show version dialog.
Properties: The property dialog will list the properties exposed by the CQ for a particular object i.e. container, folder and document. The property can be read only and it is not editable.
Basic Search: In the Basic Search user will be able to type a text and FrameMaker will look for the text in the name of all the files which comes in the context of selected node. The search result will be shown in a search result dialog. The user can do the operation on the objects present in the search result dialog.

8. **Import References: **FrameMaker will also allow importing and insertion of references from CQ Server itself for e.g. importing of graphics from repository, add a component to the checkout book, insertion of cross ref etc

9. **Multi-channel Publishing: Once the Adobe **CQ connector is integrated into FrameMaker, same connector code integrates with FrameMaker Publishing Server (FMPS) for multi-channel device publishing. To integrate Adobe CQ with FMPS11, you will need to copy a XML file to the user area of FMPS11. Please refer to the Readme (which you will find along with the sample connector pakcage. link below) for instructions.

For more information, watch the video https://blog.adobe.com/media_aa2502b25324347c7f8806122d2fc53e50e0b85d.mp4 (no audio in the video)

Next Steps and how to use the sample connector

You can download the Adobe CQ sample connector from here or simply visit the FrameMaker developer page and scroll down to the section titled “CMS Connector” to learn more about the connectors. After unzipping the contents, you can see the sample connector source, compiled DLLs, Readme etc.

Furthermore,** the sample connector can be further enhanced and re-used. **This sample integration of Adobe CQ with FrameMaker 11 can be extended and can be used with repository which is JCR compliant. The FDK client allows user to interact with the JCR code hence will remain same for another CMS. However, the JCR code needs to be changed as CMSes can have different implementation.

FDK documentation: [_http://_www.adobe.com/devnet/framemaker.html](http://www.adobe.com/devnet/framemaker.html)
Useful Adobe CQ/CRX resources: http://blogs.adobe.com/dmcmahon/adobe-cqcrx-resources/
How to get started with CQ: http://dev.day.com/docs/en/cq/current/getting_started/download_and_startworking.html
CQ and CRX documentation: http://dev.day.com/docs/en.html
CRX 2.3 documentation: http://dev.day.com/docs/en/crx/current.html
How to install, start, and stop CRX instances: http://dev.day.com/docs/en/crx/current/how_to/installing starting.html

Hope you will find this information and the sample connector useful. Please let us know your thoughts through your comments below.

Regards,

Kapil Verma – Sr. Product Manager, FrameMaker line of products