RSuite CMS 4.0 Evaluation Study

Transcription

1 RSuite CMS 4.0 Evaluation Study Copyright 2012 Laura Jaramillo. All Rights Reserved.

2 This evaluation reflects the sole opinion of Grupo Punta SA and Laura Jaramillo 1. All information contained within this document was gathered from public domain sources, including conference materials from the RSuite Users Conference, press releases, official on-line documentation and blogs from the official site. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Grupo Punta S.A. on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because market conditions are constantly changing, Grupo Punta cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. This white paper is for informational purposes only. GRUPO PUNTA MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT. Unless otherwise noted, the example companies, organizations, products, domain names, addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious, and no association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e- mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred Grupo Punta S.A. (Mexico). All rights reserved. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. 1 Laura Jaramillo,

3 Contents Abstract... 1 Introduction... 2 Planning for an RSuite CMS Implementation... 2 XML-based Solution... 2 Custom XML Structures... 3 Workflow Engine Customizations... 4 Browse and Search within RSuite... 5 Security Framework... 6 Long Term Maintenance... 6 RSuite CMS Implementation Costs... 7 Upgrading to RSuite versions 3.7 and RSuite 3.7 Overview... 8 Embedded RSuite XML Metadata... 8 RQL RSuite Query Language Deprecated... 8 RSuite 4.0 Overview... 9 RSuite CMS Customization Costs Appendix A: Resources Available for Evaluation of the RSuite CMS

4 Abstract This document is intended to provide a candid evaluation of the costs to implement the RSuite CMS 2, a content management system for publishers. It is designed to provide familiarity with both the RSuite implementation, the costs to upgrade, and changes in version 3.7 and 4.0 that impact ongoing support and maintenance of the product. This evaluation includes: Descriptions of the features and technologies provided by RSI Content Solutions for the RSuite CMS. Details regarding additional features provided within RSuite versions 3.7 (released May 3, ) and 4.0 (released November 29, ). Details on the costs of implementing an RSuite-based content management solution Details regarding the costs for existing RSuite customers to upgrade to version 3.7 and 4.0. This guide is designed for technical decision makers, IT professionals, and developers. The overall goal of this guide is to help publishers perform a thorough and effective evaluation of the features provided by the RSuite CMS and the costs that will be incurred with respect to the return on investment. 2 RSuite CMS by RSI Content Solutions, 3 RSuite CMS 3.7 announcement, 4 RSuite CMS 4.0 announcement,

5 Introduction The RSuite CMS is a content management system developed for publishers that require production and workflow capabilities for their content. RSuite is a Java-based application 5 that utilizes MarkLogic Server 6 as the underlying database and JBoss JBPM 7 as the workflow engine. Planning for an RSuite CMS Implementation The RSuite CMS is not a turnkey solution and requires considerable customization and a well-planned implementation effort. According to Christopher Hill, Vice President of Product Management for RSI Content Solutions, Because no two publishing companies are the same, RSuite CMS is not a turnkey solution 8. In the opinion of Hill, turnkey solutions aren t really going to cut it. The following sections detail the customization efforts required for an RSuite implementation, and the corresponding projected costs. XML-based Solution One peril in any RSuite implementation is the required staff knowledge of XML and XML technology. Though publishers typically author content in Microsoft Word and publish in various external digital formats, XML is at the core of the RSuite solution and custom transformations are written in order to produce digital content. This learning curve, aside from the associated implementation costs, is widely viewed as prohibitive to most publishers, 5 RSuite Architecture, 6 MarkLogic Server, 7 JBoss JBPM, 8 Increase Your Revenue with Strategic Content Management, by RSI Content Solutions,

6 especially small publishers 9. Implementation and configuration of the RSuite CMS is an arduous process that often requires intervention by the RSI Content Solutions team. According to Erik Vlietinck, the first step of an RSuite implementation is to define the XML content schema or create a DTD (Document Type Definition). These are loaded through a series of scripts that need to be developed in a software language called Groovy 10. Director of Engineering, Michael Roberts, remarked that the software language Groovy is your friend. 11 However Groovy is a language that has not seen widespread adoption, and finding Groovy developers is very difficult. In July 2009 James Strachan, the creator of Groovy, wrote on his blog, "I can honestly say if someone had shown me the Programming in Scala book by Martin Odersky, Lex Spoon & Bill Venners back in 2003 I'd probably have never created Groovy 12. In the same document written by Michael Roberts, Roberts lists several of the mandatory customizations that need to take place on each RSuite implementation: Loading DTDs and XML Schemas Setting managed object definitions Setting layered metadata definitions Importing workflow definitions Defining hot folders Loading preview stylesheets, both XSL and CSS Custom XML Structures The XML structures that underlay each RSuite implementation are different. In a video presentation by RSuite lead architect 9 RSuite is definitely not for small publishers, Erik Vlietinck, 10 Groovy Script, 11 Architecture Overview and RSuite Extensions, 12 Scala as the long term replacement for java/javac,

7 Bryan Elliott, Mr. Elliott remarked structures are going to be different for every publisher so we cannot speak to how that works" 13. These variant structures therefore require considerable work to develop, deploy, and maintain. Finally, all editorial is done using XML. In the documentation 14 produced by RSI Content Solutions it is stated RSuite integrates with any WebDAV-compliant third-party XML editor such as XMetaL, Arbortext, and oxygen. These editors require a fundamental understanding of XML in order to use and deploy. Workflow Engine Customizations As noted previously, the RSuite CMS is developed over JBoss JBPM. However JBPM utilizes a relational database 15 as the underlying backbone, meaning that each RSuite deployment requires both the MarkLogic Server and MySQL DB. This integration is difficult to understate. In implementing a third-party solution over a relational database, all workflow metadata is separated from the content. Reports and queries that require users to reconcile content within the workflow mandate querying two different databases, in two different query languages, and combining the results. Report generation and workflow customization is therefore one of the most timeconsuming and expenses in an RSuite implementation. In addition, nearly all RSuite users require custom workflow components. Within RSuite, these require the development of custom Java classes known as action handlers Thus, the ongoing customization of the RSuite CMS requires understanding of the Java programming language. 13 Presentation by Bryan Elliott, 14 RSuite architecture, 15 JBPM Reference Guide, 16 Action handlers, as referenced within the RSuite CMS brochure 17 JBPM Reference Guide,

8 Browse and Search within RSuite While RSuite provides rudimentary tools to facilitate search and discovery of content, heavy customization is required in this area. This customization is related to XQuery or API calls that differ based upon each individual publisher s content model. Figure 1: On-line presentation by Lisa Bos at the RSuite Users Conference 2012 The preceding image was provided by Lisa Bos at the RSuite Users Conference 18, and is indicative of the amount of customization necessary to facilitate a search solution within RSuite. These customizations are facilitated through both CMS User Interface extensions and server-side extensions 19, to include forms for starting workflows, overriding of existing actions, 18 Presentation by Lisa Bos, page Extending RSuite,

9 event handlers, workflow action handlers, search handlers and XML validation. As noted by Roberts, Java development and an understanding of JAR plug-ins and the RSuite API is required for most customization. To provide another example, according to Eliot Kimber in his white paper titled DITA for Publishers 20, in the implementation with Human Kinetics, With RSuite CMS, a custom publication metadata search form was necessary to facilitate discovery of metadata. Security Framework The RSuite architecture layout informs users that the user management and authentication is provided through LDAP-based security. This means that storage of security information is separated from the XML database, thereby limiting the flexibility of the role-based security model. Implementation of content security is therefore an implementation detail that must be handled for each customer. Long Term Maintenance Deployment of an RSuite-based solution means a commitment not only to the recurring maintenance cost of the server, but continual development and customization. In the on-line presentation 21 provided in October 2012 by Lisa Bos, Chief Technical Officer of RSI Content Solutions, Bos postulates that "content management is not a static endeavor", and continuous process and content improvement 22 is necessary. 20 DITA for Publishers, 21 Presentation by Lisa Bos, 22 Search as the Center of the Customer Experience,

10 RSuite CMS Implementation Costs As demonstrated in the preceding sections, the cost of an RSuite implementation can be staggering. Below I have included the base customizations of every RSuite customization along with options for additional customization based upon need. Customization Hours Projected Cost* Selection and development of XML Schemas or DTDs Creation of Groovy scripts to load schemas and manageable objects Custom creation and definition of metadata 160 $32, $24, $24,000 Integration of a third-party XML editor 120 $24,000 User interface and search customization 200 $40,000 Definition and creation of workflows 90 $18,000 Development of custom action handlers 800 $160,000 Custom XSLT for export, previews 50 $10,000 Development of reports 600 $120,000 Figure 2: Projected RSuite Implementation Costs The average cost of an RSuite implementation is estimated to be $452,000, though most implementations will exceed this number with additional customizations to search controls and user interface components. The cost to maintain an RSuite implementation is estimated to be between $120,000 and $240,000 annually.

11 Upgrading to RSuite versions 3.7 and 4.0 A Discussion of the Return On Investment (ROI) The following sections deal specifically with the customizations required to upgrade to the latest version of RSuite, 4.0. RSuite 3.7 Overview In presenting RSuite 3.7 to the audience at the RSuite Users Conference in October 2011, Hill discussed fundamental changes in the RSuite architecture that will impact existing clients. These detailed emerged the following year at the RSuite User Conference Spotlight: Ask an Engineer event in the 2012 RSuite Users Conference and are detailed blow. Embedded RSuite XML Metadata Prior to RSuite version 3.7, custom RSuite metadata was embedded directly into an XML document 23. One of the principal elements of the Ask an Engineer discussion was therefore How does the latest version change the data storage model? 24 Embedded RSuite metadata is removed following the release of RSuite 3.7. If you are an existing RSuite customer, this means a very complex migration process that requires scripts that move the metadata from within content to a separate XML document. Grupo Punta S.A. estimates that this migration will take the average publisher nearly 200 hours of effort, not including testing. RQL RSuite Query Language Deprecated As recently as October 2009, RSI Content Solutions promoted the RSuite Query Language (RQL) as the principal means by which customers could access content within the repository RSuite 3 press release, EContent Mag, 24 Ask an Engineer, RSuite-User-Conference-Spotlight-Ask-an-Engineer 25 Custom Search, by Michael Roberts,

12 According to prominent XML consultant Ronald Bourret 26, within RSuite XML documents can be searched with RQL, a proprietary query language that is translated into XQuery for execution on the underlying database. However, in the Ask an Engineer session we learned that the recent release of RSuite 3.7 has deprecated the use of RQL. If you are an existing client of the RSuite CMS, it is nearly certain that you used RQL in content retrieval. You will therefore be required to re-write all of these queries, including any custom extensions developed to utilize them. Redevelopment of RQL into custom search is estimated to take more than 400 hours for the average RSuite customer. RSuite 4.0 Overview According to the press release 27, RSuite 4 offers a redesigned, more intuitive user experience with action-oriented contextual menus, search-based content navigation, accordion-style search results, and a user interface (UI) with intentional color design. In fact we ve found that the new UI provides greater productivity among editorial and production groups while drastically reducing the learning curve. Unfortunately if you are an existing RSuite customer then you will have already made aggressive customizations to the user interface. These user interface and search extensions, described ubiquitously throughout RSuite documentation and referenced earlier in the Browse and Search within RSuite section of this document, were a necessary component of any pre-3.7 RSuite implementation. As such, upgrading to RSuite 4.0 will require an almost an entire re-write of any UI customizations. This means once again incurring the costs of these customizations, which are typically a minimum of 200 hours of development. 26 XML Database Products, 27 RSuite 4 official announcement,

13 RSuite CMS Customization Costs The following table outlines the costs of upgrading to RSuite version 4.0, inclusive of the cost of the RSuite 3.7 upgrade. These costs are not covered by the standard RSuite maintenance agreement. Customization Hours Projected Cost* XML migration 200 $40,000 Rewrite of search controls to take into account deprecated RQL 400 $80,000 User interface and search customization 200 $40,000 Figure 3: Projected RSuite Upgrade Costs The average cost of an RSuite upgrade is therefore projected to be well above $100,000, with a typical upgrade costing $160,000.

14 Appendix A: Resources Available for Evaluation of the RSuite CMS The following public domain resources were used in the creation of this evaluation. We encourage you to use these resources as aids in conducting your own internal evaluation of the RSuite CMS in addition to this evaluation guide: RSI Content Solutions Web Site, RSuite CMS On-Line Brochure, Proceedings from the RSuite CMS 2012 Users Conference, The RSI Content Solutions Blog, RSuite CMS YouTube Channel, RSI Content Solutions Twitter Feed, White Papers Search as the Center of the Customer Experience, by Lisa Bos 28, RSI Content Solutions CTO, Increase Your Revenue with Strategic Content Management, by RSI Content Solutions Staff, DITA for Publishers, by Eliot Kimber 29, 28 Lisa Bos, CTO of RSI Content Solutions, 29 Eliot Kimber, Senior Solutions Architect at RSI Content Solutions,