As a Java teccy who has spent a significant proportion of the last few years designing, building, specifying, analysing and frequently criticising CMS solutions it was pleasing to watch the development of the Java Content Repository (JSR 170 and JSR 283) Specification – It felt as though it was a significant step towards standardising what up until now (and remains so) a fractured and frustratingly immature technology sector.

I’ve just finished working with a government department that was looking to further utilise the large volume of content (running to millions of items) stored in their internal web based knowledge system (essentially a glorified web CMS). However, this department was hamstrung by the fact that the repository was built on a well known, Java based, proprietary CMS solution with a nearly non-existent API, meaning that we either exposed the information via the CMS’ own portal product (a non-starter, bearing in mind we were trying to move away from the proprietary nature of the system) or, as happened implement our own interface…

…Which is how we get to CMIS, which simply put is a specification to define a set of protocols allowing CRUD like operations in order to interact with a Content Repository via web services – This has the potential to make Systems Integrators lives easier, and therefore offer better value to customers.
CMIS could be seen as moving the ideas of JCR further along – Indeed, the groups looking to make this happen are the same as those who worked towards the JCR specs. However, on this occasion, Microsoft are also along for the ride.

EMC have already released a version of their flagship Documentum product that complies with the CMIS standards and others are already looking to do the same.

CMIS is by no means an accepted standard, however it potentially promises solve a number of core business requirements (seamlessly linking apps. to multiple repositories, enabling the decoupling of management apps from the content repository etc.) However, it still has a long way to go, but we will be watching closely to see how it develops.

Tags: CMIS, Content Management, Documentum, EMC