DynamoDB – ECM / Content Process Services Roadmap

One of the key TSG efforts for the end of 2018 is extending Amazon’s DynamoDB to include document management capabilities with connectivity to the all of the TSG products including the OpenContent Search, OpenContent Case, OpenAnnotate and OpenMigrate.  This post will present our plans and roadmaps along with key dates.

DynamoDB Roadmap – OpenContent Web Services

One of the major advantages of the overall architecture of the TSG product set is the isolation of the content repository from all of the different products.  From the beginning with our Documentum development back in 2004, rather than build out a complete stack that only supports one type of repository, all of the TSG products were built to support any repository.  OpenContent Web Services provides the isolation layer between the applications like OpenContent Search and the backend repository (backend currently supported include Documentum, Alfresco, Solr and Hadoop).  By having our own isolation layer, TSG can not only support our applications across different repositories but can also add tweaks and performance improvements for different repositories.  For example, to dramatically improve the speed of certain Alfresco queries for large repositories, OpenContent Web Services now includes specific DB tuned queries not available through the Alfresco API to improve performance dramatically.

The first step in the DynamoDB product roadmap is to take the fully functioning Hadoop OpenContent Web Services and convert the Hadoop / HBase not only SQL (NOSQL) code base to DynamoDB.  While both DynamoDB and Hadoop / HBase are NOSQL repositories, the methods are slightly different.  See our initial post on some of the differences between DynamoDB and Hadoop/HBase.

Javadocs for all of our webservices can be found here: OpenContent 3.1 Apidoc

TSG will be looking to fully update all REST endpoints as a part of this initiative.

DynamoDB Roadmap – Config and Dictionary Services

The backbone of any Content Store system is the dictionary it build, since it controls the typing and metadata of the entire solution. Hence, the first step of the DynamoDB Roadmap is implementing the OpenContent Dictionary Service, as well as TSG’s Configuration service. The dictionary and configurations drive the entire OpenContent Management Suite solution and for the DynamoDB effort the actual content of these configurations will be stored in Amazon S3 storage.

See our related post on DynamoDB – Database Model for Document Managemement for an understanding of how the structure is represented in the repository.

OpenContent REST services that will be updated for these capabilities will include:

DICTIONARY

• ExportDictionary
• GetAllProperties
• GetAspect
• GetAspectDefinition
• GetAspects
• GetProperty
• GetType
• GetTypeDefinition
• GetTypes
• UpdateDictionary
• updateJsonDictionary

CONFIG

• DeleteConfig
• ExportConfigsByPath
• GetConfigByName
• GetConfigByPathId
• GetConfigByType
• ImportConfigs
• ImportConfigsWithFileObject
• SaveConfig
• UpdateConfig
• UpdateConfigById

Currently this capability has been completed.

DynamoDB Roadmap – Add/Modify Document and Properties, Search and Retrieve

The next step of the DynamoDB Roadmap will be the establishing of a structure for the repository as well as the ability to Add and Modify documents and properties, Search and Retrieve documents. One major difference between Hadoop/HBase and DynamoDB is where the content is stored. For Hadoop/HBase, the content is stored directly in the HBase table while for DynamoDB, given Amazon Web Services, all of the content is stored in Amazon S3.

Searching against DynamoDB itself is generally not advised since it is optimized for simple Key/Value fetches. That is why TSG has implemented searching on a SOLR instance for this effort. This has required a few tweaks to OpenContent Search from the Hadoop/HBase solution.

OpenContent REST services that will be updated for these capabilities will include:

CONTENT

• CancelCheckout
• Checkin
• Checkout
• ContentLink
• CopyDocument
• DeleteObject
• DeleteObjects
• FindOrCreateFolder
• Get OpenContentObject
• GetAppliedAspects
• GetAvailableThumbnails
• GetChildRelations
• GetChildren
• GetContent
• GetContentAsName
• GetContentFormats
• GetContentSize
• GetCurrentOpenContentObject
• GetFirstVersionId
• GetIdByPath
• GetLockOwner
• GetMimeType
• GetObject
• GetObjectByPath
• GetObjectPath
• GetObjectProperties
• GetObjectsMimeTypes
• GetOpenContentObjects
• GetPDFSection
• GetPermissions
• GetPreviousVersions
• GetProperties
• GetPropertiesExternal
• GetThumbnail
• LockDocument
• PutOpenContentObject
• PutOpenContentObject
• PutOpenContentObjects
• ResolveVersion
• UnlockDocument
• UploadContent

SEARCH

• EnhancedReadQuery
• OCAdminSearchQuery
• OCAdminSerachUpdateProperties
• PassReadOnly
• PassThroughExecuteQuery
• PassThroughReadQuery
• Search
• SearchComposite
• TotalRecords

Currently this capability has been completed.

DynamoDB Roadmap – Adding Folder and Folder Relationships

The next step of the DynamoDB roadmap will be adding folder objects, properties and relationships.

With folder capabilities added, OpenContent Case will be used to demonstrate and test the capabilities.

OpenContent REST services that will be updated for these capabilities will include:

CONTENT

• AddRelation
• GetFolderChildren
• GetFullFolderParents
• GetParentFolderRelations
• GetParentRelations
• GetParents
• GetRelations
• RemoveRelation

Currently this capability has been completed.

DynamoDB Roadmap – Rendition and Annotation/Redacting Support

The next step of the DynamoDB roadmap will be allowing for renditions of content to be added along with annotation/redacting support.

OpenContent REST services that will be updated for these capabilities will include:

CONTENT

• AddRendition
• AreObjectsRenditionable

ANNOTATION

• CanControlPrint
• CheckinAnnotatedPDF
• CheckinAnnotatedPDFWithAuthentication
• CreateVideoScreenshot
• DeleteAnnotations
• ExternalReview
• GetAnnotatedPDFWithAuthentication
• GetAnnotatedPdf
• GetAnnotationCount
• GetAnnotations
• GetAttachedDocs
• GetAttachmentContent
• GetBookmarks
• GetBoxData
• GetCachedDocumentInfo
• GetDocumentInfo
• GetExcelAnnotationSummary
• GetExternalReview
• GetFileAnnotationContent
• GetInternalLinks
• GetPDFAnnotationSummary
• GetRedactionSuggestions
• GetTimeline
• GetVideoScreenshots
• GetWordMapsAndTextLinks
• IsAnnotated
• ModifyPDF
• ReorderPages
• RotatePages
• SaveAnnotations
• SaveRedactions
• SaveSignatures
• saveAnnotationsWithAttachment

With folder capabilities added, OpenAnnotate will be used to demonstrate and test the capabilities.

Currently this capability is planned to be released on 12/14/2018.

DyanmoDB Roadmap – Amazon Marketplace

Similar to our Alfresco AWS Marketplace Instance, TSG is planning on releasing a marketplace instance for DyanmoDB document repository that will include all of the TSG products as well as some sample scenarios including Insurance Policy and Claims as well as Accounts Payable.

TSG is planning to release this capability by 12/31/2018.

DynamoDB Roadmap – OpenMigrate Target

The next step of the DynamoDB roadmap will be developing an OpenMigrate Target for the solution to allow content and metadata to be moved into DynamoDB and S3.

TSG is planning to release this capability by 1/31/2019.

DynamoDB Roadmap – Add Administrative Capabilities

One of the biggest requirements of the successful management of any ECM / Content Process Services repository is the ability for administrators to configure new document and folder types and security.

Currently, most of User and Group support is handled within OCMS by connecting to an LDAP server, which the DynamoDB solution supports. Any other ad-hoc administrative management had always been handled using the default interfaces of the backing content management application, eg Alfresco Share. With that in mind, TSG is also planning to add in Ad-Hoc Administrative capabilities to the DynamoDB solution that allows for ACL creation, user/group creation and user and group inclusion into other groups. This will allow for extra control of group-based security within the DynamoDB solution.

These endpoints do not currently exist in the OCMS solution and TSG is planning to release this capability by 2/28/2019.

Summary

TSG is rapidly adding the ability to add document management capabilities for Amazon Web Services customers that want to leverage DynamoDB.  Roadmap is moving quickly.  Check back over the next couple of months to watch our progress.

Let us know your thoughts below.