Mediasurface

Mediasurface Web Content Management

Authors: Bojan Vukasinovic & Glen Lavery

In the beginning Mediasurface was a great tool for developers; and it needed to be, because we had to create number of specific requirements for our clients including in-place page editing that the product didn't have. Now, Mediasurface is feature rich but it is still a great platform on which the developers can build very specific functionality.

Back at the beginning of year 2000 there was only CMS. No segmentation was made that today defines WCM, ECM, KM, DM, Assets Management etc. There was just CMS.

In those days you could see high profile Government Agency's sites in flat HTML for which the best developer's friend was "Find and Replace in Files". CMSs came to tackle most of the management hurdles but sometimes more: Separation of content, presentation & functionality, workflow, user & access management and some became web platforms to which you could hook all sorts of data and applications.




Mediasurface Version 2

In 2001 Mediasurface was at its version 2, or 2.1 to be precise. It had Oracle 8i backend, Java client as CMS administration console and Perl content delivery. The Basis of a very sound CMS were in place founded on a solid Oracle database schema. For developers with CGI experience Mediasurface was a familiar Perl business with script based templates in which system Perl hashes hold the data from CMS and library of Perl subroutines process more complicated computations.

There was a way to make web pages out of templates and reusable components that were both supported and recommended by the vendor, but that meant using the Java administration client which was temperamental at times and frustrated developers who used to working with files rather than code stored in database. One of the main disadvantages was that you could not use source versioning system for example. Never the less in this version Linea's developers have delivered projects for DfES Standards >> and ANN.


Mediasurface Version 3

Version 3 of the product came around to us in 2003, with bugs fixed and more or less the same architectural CMS approach. As the product has now had a considerable success and purchased by likes of OUP >>, DfES who upgraded, Nomura >> and Food Standards Agency >>. Linea's consultants have worked on bypassing proprietary Perl delivery engine from using templates and components to systems that are file based and template driven. We used Perl templating engine Template Toolkit and developed applications based on Mediaurface, like In-Situ site building tool, something similar will come from the vendor almost 5 years later, in version 5. The Mediasurface CMS was open and flexible enough that allowed developers to do this. Such applications would probably not be supported by the vendor but they were stable and sound as was the product.


Mediasurface Version 4

Version 4 brought a breath of fresh air. It had both Java and Perl delivery and same Java client admin console and Oracle databases. Our consultants have worked on projects for Local Government, Cancer Research UK >>, upgraded DfES and Nomura, delivered successful websites for Food Standards Agency, Stockton Borough Council >> etc.

Java delivery in version 4 meant that applications designed on Mediasurface enjoyed much wider opportunities and became mainstream Java. In 2004 you had to choose from either Java or .NET and Mediasurface chose Java. Delivery via Mediasurface Servlet meant that shift has been made from Perl database templates and components to JSPs, Custom Tags and Servlets. SOAP web interface was also made available. In the projects that Linea's consultants have seen and worked on Mediasurface became not only Web Content Repository but storage for transactional data, documents storage and integration hub. This developer-centric CMS was capable and extensible. There was not much our customers desired that was not possible to do with the product, as far as developed systems are concerned, but there were complaints regarding products own Web Content Management client and WYSIWYG editor.

Most importantly, we've successfully built interfaces based on Mediaurface Java API that utilize AJAX, Web Services, Portlets API etc. This Java API has been reliable and mostly resilient due to its Java conector MAe.


Mediasurface Version 5 (Morello)

Mediasurface Morello provides the means for easy and powerful web content management from the desktop with a powerful suite of tools and interfaces to integrate with windows desktop and office applications common to todays corporate office environment. This allows office staff the power to build, manage and control sophisticated web applications from their own desktop with the ease and confidence of standard office applications.

Creating a new page is as easy as picking a document type from a list, browsing a thumbnail gallery for a template and selecting a stylesheet from a dropdown menu,and drag and drop to your desired location. You then add content in either form or WYSIWYG editor, choose industry keywords from a hireachical taxonomy of predefined terms, browse thumbnail galleries for adding multimedia content and browse content structure, by taxonomy terms or search for other content items to relate to.

Separation of Content, Presentation & functionality has now been expanded to include the separation of content storage and site presentation by way of the content store and the site planner, which offers a solution to the age old problem of corporate websites of having an internal content management structure that mirrors the organisations structure whilst avoiding exposing that to the audience end user by providing a separate site plan built of links to repository content.

This power, flexibility, ease of use and reusablility is also available from the perspective of the site designer, the web developer and the site administrator. The Mediasurface product, rebranded as Morello, has matured into a slick, usable, flexible and powerful enterprise solution for any corporate website.

Development and integration can now be achieved through a full c# .net api to complement the existing java, soap and perl api's, as well as RMI/IIOP expanding the communication protocols as well as http streaming. This also has opened up desktop intergation by exposing the MAe through SOAP api and WDSL to VB.NET web services development and making possible smooth integration with MS Office applications. The site delivery and templating options now include ASP.net web parts as well as JSP custom tags and perl user functions. The option of a Mssql server backend as well as oracle 10g and 9i,, as well as the LDAP Directory services layer, the developer and business integration audience base has been rapidly expanded allowing Mediasurface to further increase its coverage of the available development platform options in the WCM market today.

In version 5 we've done projects such as revamp Croydon local government site in Morello, designed and built Internet and Intranet for Erasmus Medical Centre Netherlands >>, mass migration of content from flat html for Nato.

If you are considering adopting a new Web Content Management system, or want to upgrade or build on your current Mediasurface instance then do get it touch with us.