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Alfresco Digital Workspace 1.5

Alfresco Digital Workspace is a new content management application built with the Alfresco Application Development Framework (ADF). The user interface has been streamlined making simple tasks such as uploading, downloading, searching for content, and collaborating with others much easier. You can create public, moderated, and private libraries. Access for other users to these libraries can be configured by setting permissions, at an individual or group level. Libraries can be added to your favorites list so they can be accessed easily. The search feature is powerful and includes numerous filters based on your metadata, so you can quickly find what you are looking for.

Alfresco Governance Services functionality for end users is also provided, including record declaration and archival of files into long term storage.

Alfresco Digital Workspace simplifies content management and provides comprehensive extensibility features for developers, using ADF, and allows them to easily and quickly create custom solutions for specific use cases.

Alfresco Digital Workspace is automatically deployed as part of Alfresco Content Services using Helm charts or a Docker Compose file. You can also manually install Alfresco Content Services using standard war files and then configure the installation to include Alfresco Digital Workspace.

This documentation is also available in the following languages: Čeština [1], Dansk [2], Deutsch [3], Español [4], Français [5], Italiano [6], 日本語 [7], Bokmål [8], Nederlands [9], Polski [10], Português (Brasil) [11], Русский [12], Svenska [13], Suomi [14], 中文简体 [15].

See the following video for a quick introduction.

  • What's new in Alfresco Digital Workspace [16]
  • Deploying Digital Workspace [17] There are a number of different ways to deploy Alfresco Digital Workspace. You can deploy it using Docker images that are packaged in Helm charts or using Docker Compose. You can also install Alfresco Content Services using standard WAR files contained in the distribution zip, and then configure the installation to include Alfresco Digital Workspace.
  • Configuring Digital Workspace [18]Alfresco Digital Workspace settings are in the following file ../digital-workspace/app.config.json. You can use the file to tailor Alfresco Digital Workspace easily and without making any code changes. The file can be updated while Alfresco Digital Workspace is still running and users will see the changes once their pages are reloaded.
  • Governance Services [19]Alfresco Digital Workspace has been extended to include Alfresco Governance Services functionality for end users. Working with records, and archiving files is quick and easy to do via the action menus of the Alfresco Digital Workspace.
  • Developing extensions to Digital Workspace [20]Alfresco Digital Workspace provides a comprehensive extensibility framework and allows you to customize the Navigation sidebar, Toolbar, Info drawer, Viewer, and Content metadata.
  • Troubleshooting and FAQs [21] Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions.
  • Disclaimer [22]
  • Copyright [23]

What's new in Alfresco Digital Workspace

See what's new in this Alfresco Digital Workspace 1.5 release.

Improved WCAG AA Accessibility Coverage

The third phase of our improvements have now been made to some of the Alfresco Digital Workspace features in order to provide better accessibility compliance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and Level AA and Section 508 standards.

For more information, see the release notes in the Alfresco Support Portal [25].

Parent topic: Alfresco Digital Workspace 1.5 [26]

Deploying Digital Workspace

There are a number of different ways to deploy Alfresco Digital Workspace. You can deploy it using Docker images that are packaged in Helm charts or using Docker Compose. You can also install Alfresco Content Services using standard WAR files contained in the distribution zip, and then configure the installation to include Alfresco Digital Workspace.

The deployment methods are:
  • Containerized deployment [30]Alfresco Digital Workspace is deployed as part of Alfresco Content Services using Helm charts or a Docker Compose file. Both these methods include a lightweight, pre configured, NGINX server and Alfresco Digital Workspace application. Due to the limited capabilities of Docker Compose, this deployment method is recommended for development and test environments only.
  • Installing into Tomcat [31] To deploy Alfresco Digital Workspace into Tomcat, you first need to install Alfresco Content Services 6.2 or above using the distribution zip.
  • Installing into a different web server [32] You can deploy Alfresco Digital Workspace into a different web server than where Alfresco Content Services is running. You can use another instance of Tomcat, a lightweight web server such as NGINX, or you can use a web server of your choice. First you need to install Alfresco Content Services 6.2 or above using the distribution zip.
Parent topic: Alfresco Digital Workspace 1.5 [26]

Containerized deployment

Alfresco Digital Workspace is deployed as part of Alfresco Content Services using Helm charts or a Docker Compose file. Both these methods include a lightweight, pre configured, NGINX server and Alfresco Digital Workspace application. Due to the limited capabilities of Docker Compose, this deployment method is recommended for development and test environments only.

It is recommended you familiarize yourself with the concepts of containerized deployment before working with Helm charts, and Docker. See Understanding containerized deployment [33] for more information.

Follow these links to find out how to deploy Alfresco Digital Workspace using Helm charts or Docker Compose:
Parent topic: Deploying Digital Workspace [17]

Installing into Tomcat

To deploy Alfresco Digital Workspace into Tomcat, you first need to install Alfresco Content Services 6.2 or above using the distribution zip. See Installing using distribution zip [36] for more information.
  1. Log in to the Support Portal at https://support.alfresco.com [25].
  2. Go to the Downloads area and select Alfresco Digital Workspace.
  3. Download alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x.war for the required version.

    alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x.war is the file name followed by the version of Alfresco Digital Workspace, for example alfresco-digital-workspace-1.5.0.war.

  4. On the server that will host Alfresco Digital Workspace move the alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x.war file to the <TOMCAT_HOME>/webapps folder.

    Note: Tomcat extracts the files automatically.
  5. Browse the extracted alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x directory and open the app.config.json file in a text editor.
  6. Edit the app.config.json file and change the ecmHost property to be the same as your Alfresco Content Services server and allocated port. For example:

    http://<acsservername>:port

  7. Also in the app.config.json file, change the baseShareUrl property to be the same as your Alfresco Digital Workspace server and allocated port. For example:

    http://<appservername>:port/alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x (alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x being the name of the war file)

    Note: If Quickshare is disabled in Alfresco Content Services ignore this step.

    To disable Quickshare, set system.quickshare.enabled=false in the \tomcat\shared\classes\alfresco-global.properties file. For more information, see Using the alfresco-global.properties file [37].

  8. Save the file.
  9. Open your browser and access Alfresco Digital Workspace:

    http://<appservername>:8080/alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x

Parent topic: Deploying Digital Workspace [17]

Installing into a different web server

You can deploy Alfresco Digital Workspace into a different web server than where Alfresco Content Services is running. You can use another instance of Tomcat, a lightweight web server such as NGINX, or you can use a web server of your choice. First you need to install Alfresco Content Services 6.2 or above using the distribution zip. See Installing using distribution zip [36] for more information.
  1. Log in to the Support Portal at https://support.alfresco.com [25].
  2. Go to the Downloads area and select Alfresco Digital Workspace.
  3. Download alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x.zip for the required version.

    alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x.zip is the file name followed by the version of Alfresco Digital Workspace, for example alfresco-digital-workspace-1.5.0.zip.

  4. On the server where you want to host Alfresco Digital Workspace extract the files to <webserver-location>/html.

    Note: This is the public html folder.
  5. Browse the extracted files and open app.config.json in a text editor.
  6. Edit the app.config.json file and change the ecmHost property to be the same as your Alfresco Content Services server and allocated port. For example:

    http://<acsservername>:port

  7. Also in the app.config.json file, change the baseShareUrl property to be the server name of Alfresco Digital Workspace. For example:

    http://<appservername>:port/alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x (alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x being the name of the zip file)

    Note: If Quickshare is disabled in Alfresco Content Services ignore this step.

    To disable Quickshare, set system.quickshare.enabled=false in the \tomcat\shared\classes\alfresco-global.properties file. For more information, see Using the alfresco-global.properties file [37].

  8. Save the file.
  9. Open your browser and access Alfresco Digital Workspace:

    http://<appservername>:8080/alfresco-digital-workspace-x.x.x

Note: When deploying Alfresco Digital Workspace to a different web server, it is recommended you setup Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS). For more information, see CORS configuration [38] and Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) [39].
Parent topic: Deploying Digital Workspace [17]

Configuring Digital Workspace

Alfresco Digital Workspace settings are in the following file ../digital-workspace/app.config.json. You can use the file to tailor Alfresco Digital Workspace easily and without making any code changes. The file can be updated while Alfresco Digital Workspace is still running and users will see the changes once their pages are reloaded.
For more in-depth documentation about how to configure Alfresco Digital Workspace, see Application features [40].

The following settings can be configured in ../digital-workspace/app.config.json.

Property Sub-property Example value Description
ecmHost   “https://repository.domain.com:port” Server address of Alfresco Content Services.
baseShareUrl   “https://appname.domain.com:port/#/preview/s” Server address of where shared files will be accessible from (only required if different to the application address).
authtype   Basic Determines the type of authentication. To use Single Sign-on mode you must change this property to OAuth. See Single Sign-On (SSO) [41].
aosHost   "https://repository.domain.com/alfresco/aos" Server address of the AOS endpoint.
Note: Server address has to be https.
application name “Digital Workspace” Application name that will be shown in the header of the application and in the page/tab title.
  logo “assets/images/alfresco-logo-flower.svg” Path to the logo shown in the application header.
  copyright “© 2017 - 2020 Alfresco Software, Inc. All rights reserved.” Copyright text shown on the login page.
headerColor   #2196F3 Value for the header background color of the application.
languagePicker   false Enable manual language selection menu.
pagination size 25 Set the default number of items to be displayed on a page.
  supportedPageSizes 25, 50, 100 Change the items available in the pagination control.
files excluded ".DS_Store", "desktop.ini", "Thumbs.db", ".git" Restrict users from uploading certain types of files and folders by setting or extending the list of rules at the "files.excluded" path.
  Match-options, no case true Ensures that the exclusions are case insensitive.
adf-versions-manager allowComments true Toggle version comments on/off.
  allowDownload true Toggle downloads of versions on/off.
sideNav preserveState true Remember the users choice of sidenav minimized or expanded.
  expandedSidenav true Side navigation expanded by default.
languages key “en” Key for language picker menu options.
  label “English” Label to display in the language picker menu.
content-metadata presets   Add custom aspects and properties to be shown in the information drawer.
  custom   Add custom aspects and properties to be shown in the information drawer.
search include   Specify the node information returned by the API with the search results set.
  sorting   Search result sorting options available, and which option is the default.
  filterQueries   Specify what content should, and shouldn’t be returned in the results set.
  facetFields   Allows the configuration of the search results filter options.
  facetQueries   Allows the configuration of the search results filter options.
  categories   Allows the configuration of the search results filter options.
  aca:fields   Specify the metadata fields that will be included in search queries.
viewer.maxRetries   2 The preview mechanism used to view a file tries to open it and if its unsuccessful it waits 20 seconds and then tries again. The process involves converting the file (multiple file formats are supported depending on content type) and if it takes more than 20 seconds the system will say that the content isn't supported. This time out can be increased by adding a value for this property. If you enter 2 the wait time before time out will be 40 seconds.

Parent topic: Alfresco Digital Workspace 1.5 [26]

Governance Services

Alfresco Digital Workspace has been extended to include Alfresco Governance Services functionality for end users. Working with records, and archiving files is quick and easy to do via the action menus of the Alfresco Digital Workspace.

These features require Alfresco Governance Services, and for archival to long term storage, Alfresco Content Connector for AWS S3.

See the following video for a quick introduction to the new governance features.

  • Working with records [42]
  • Archiving files [43]Alfresco Digital Workspace provides end users with a simple way to archive and retrieve files from Amazon S3 Glacier, a long term, low cost archive store provided by Amazon Web Services.
Parent topic: Alfresco Digital Workspace 1.5 [26]

Working with records

Alfresco Governance Services capabilities are all available from the right click menu. You can view, move, and delete records from the collaboration site. You can also declare files as records with the ability to declare multiple files in one action. Rules that facilitate the automation of Alfresco Governance Services are fully compatible with Alfresco Digital Workspace.
Note: When records are deleted from a collaboration site they are not removed from the records management file plan; only the view of the record from the collaboration site is deleted and the record continues to be managed in the file plan.

Understanding records icons

These icons represent actions and states of your records and files.

Alfresco Governance Services icon Alfresco Governance Services icon for small resolution monitors Description
  Click the icon to declare a file as a record.
The file has been successfully declared as a record.
The file has been rejected as a record. A message displays the reason why it was rejected. For example for having incomplete metadata.

Parent topic: Governance Services [19]

Archiving files

Alfresco Digital Workspace provides end users with a simple way to archive and retrieve files from Amazon S3 Glacier, a long term, low cost archive store provided by Amazon Web Services.

Archiving and retrieving your files is an important part of information governance. Archiving your files minimizes the cost of storage for infrequently accessed files or you may have a regulatory requirement to archive.

Use the right click menu in Alfresco Digital Workspace to send your files to be archived. Once archived files are still visible and can also be retrieved using the right click menu.

Understanding archival icons

These icons appear next to your files and represent their current archival state.
Archival icon Description
The file is archived.
Your file was archived and is currently being restored. The amount of time taken to restore your file depends on which retrieval type you selected.
Your files automatic restore time has been extended.
Parent topic: Governance Services [19]

Developing extensions to Digital Workspace

Alfresco Digital Workspace provides a comprehensive extensibility framework and allows you to customize the Navigation sidebar, Toolbar, Info drawer, Viewer, and Content metadata.

Leveraging a powerful rules engine, developers can control the look and feel of the main areas of the application using pre-built rules or custom rules. For example, removing toolbar buttons based on permissions or group memberships.

For more in-depth documentation about extending Alfresco Digital Workspace, see Extending [44].

Parent topic: Alfresco Digital Workspace 1.5 [26]

Troubleshooting and FAQs

Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions.

When attempting to login a problem with CORS is reported.

Refer to CORS configuration [38] and Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) [39].

back to top [53]

Can I customize Alfresco Digital Workspace?

Yes, there are a number of customizations available that can be configured in ../digital-workspace/app.config.json. See Configuring Digital Workspace [18] for more details. The application can also be extended using the ADF Extension framework. See Extending [44].

back to top [53]

I have installed an extension and Alfresco Digital Workspace does not work.

First disable the extension and check Alfresco Digital Workspace works correctly. If this resolves the issue contact the extension developer for assistance.

back to top [53]

Does Alfresco Digital Workspace work with Alfresco Governance Services?

Yes, Alfresco Digital Workspace supports Alfresco Governance Services. See Governance Services [19].

back to top [53]

Does Alfresco Digital Workspace support Smart Folders?

Smart Folder access is supported but Smart Folders cannot be created in this application.

back to top [53]

How do I setup SSL?

SSL configurations differ from one installation to the next. Here is one approach to the setup of NGINX using SSL, see https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/configuring_https_servers.html [54].

For information on generating self-trusted certificates for local testing and development purposes, see https://letsencrypt.org/docs/certificates-for-localhost/ [55].

back to top [53]

What browsers does Alfresco Digital Workspace support?

Alfresco Digital Workspace supports the following Evergreen browsers:

  • Apple Safari
  • Google Chrome
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Mozilla Firefox
back to top [53]

Is Single Sign-On (SSO) supported with Alfresco Digital Workspace?

Yes, Digital Workspace supports Single Sign-On with the Identity Service. See Alfresco SSO Guide [56] for more details.

Alfresco Digital Workspace does not support SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) for Alfresco Content Services. Users can login with their credentials using basic authentication, but SAML authentication must not be enforced.

See SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) for Alfresco Content Services [57] and Configuring SAML (SSO) settings for REST API using the Admin Console [58] for more.

back to top [53]
Parent topic: Alfresco Digital Workspace 1.5 [26]

Disclaimer

While Alfresco has used commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy of this documentation, Alfresco assumes no responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information or for damages resulting from the procedures provided. Furthermore, this documentation is supplied "as is" without guarantee or warranty, expressed or implied, including without limitation, any warranty of fitness for a specific purpose.

Parent topic: Alfresco Digital Workspace 1.5 [26]

Copyright

Copyright 2020 by Alfresco and others.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Alfresco. The trademarks, service marks, logos, or other intellectual property rights of Alfresco and others used in this documentation ("Trademarks") are the property of Alfresco and their respective owners. The furnishing of this document does not give you license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property except as expressly provided in any written agreement from Alfresco.

The United States export control laws and regulations, including the Export Administration Regulations of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and other applicable laws and regulations apply to this documentation which prohibit the export or re-export of content, products, services, and technology to certain countries and persons. You agree to comply with all export laws, regulations, and restrictions of the United States and any foreign agency or authority and assume sole responsibility for any such unauthorized exportation.

You may not use this documentation if you are a competitor of Alfresco, except with Alfresco's prior written consent. In addition, you may not use the documentation for purposes of evaluating its functionality or for any other competitive purposes.

If you need technical support for this product, contact Customer Support by email at support@alfresco.com. If you have comments or suggestions about this documentation, contact us at docs@alfresco.com.

This copyright applies to the current version of the licensed program.

Parent topic: Alfresco Digital Workspace 1.5 [26]
Source URL: https://docs.alfresco.com/adw1.5/concepts/welcome-adw.html

Links:
[1] https://docs.alfresco.com/adw-cs/concepts/welcome-adw.html
[2] https://docs.alfresco.com/adw-da/concepts/welcome-adw.html
[3] https://docs.alfresco.com/adw-de/concepts/welcome-adw.html
[4] https://docs.alfresco.com/adw-es/concepts/welcome-adw.html
[5] https://docs.alfresco.com/adw-fr/concepts/welcome-adw.html
[6] https://docs.alfresco.com/adw-it/concepts/welcome-adw.html
[7] https://docs.alfresco.com/adw-ja/concepts/welcome-adw.html
[8] https://docs.alfresco.com/adw-no-nb/concepts/welcome-adw.html
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[15] https://docs.alfresco.com/adw-zh-cn/concepts/welcome-adw.html
[16] https://docs.alfresco.com/../references/whats-new-adw.html
[17] https://docs.alfresco.com/../tasks/deploying.html
[18] https://docs.alfresco.com/../concepts/configuration.html
[19] https://docs.alfresco.com/../concepts/governance-adw.html
[20] https://docs.alfresco.com/../concepts/developing-extensions.html
[21] https://docs.alfresco.com/../references/troubleshooting.html
[22] https://docs.alfresco.com/../reuse/disclaimer.html
[23] https://docs.alfresco.com/../reuse/copyright.html
[24] https://docs.alfresco.com/whats-new-adw.html%23whats-new-adw__3
[25] https://support.alfresco.com/
[26] https://docs.alfresco.com/../concepts/welcome-adw.html
[27] https://docs.alfresco.com/containerized-deployment.html
[28] https://docs.alfresco.com/deploy-tomcat.html
[29] https://docs.alfresco.com/setup-in-webserver.html
[30] https://docs.alfresco.com/../tasks/containerized-deployment.html
[31] https://docs.alfresco.com/../tasks/deploy-tomcat.html
[32] https://docs.alfresco.com/../tasks/setup-in-webserver.html
[33] http://docs.alfresco.com/6.2/concepts/deploy-overview.html
[34] http://docs.alfresco.com/6.2/tasks/deploy-helm-aws.html
[35] https://docs.alfresco.com/6.2/tasks/deploy-docker-compose.html
[36] https://docs.alfresco.com/6.2/concepts/ch-install.html
[37] https://docs.alfresco.com/6.2/concepts/global-props-intro.html
[38] https://docs.alfresco.com/6.2/concepts/enabling-cors.html
[39] https://enable-cors.org/
[40] https://alfresco-content-app.netlify.com/#/features/
[41] https://www.alfresco.com/abn/adf/docs/core/components/login.component/#single-sign-on-sso
[42] https://docs.alfresco.com/../concepts/workspace-ags-icons.html
[43] https://docs.alfresco.com/../concepts/workspace-archival-icons.html
[44] https://alfresco-content-app.netlify.com/#/extending/
[45] https://docs.alfresco.com/troubleshooting.html%23troubleshooting__1
[46] https://docs.alfresco.com/troubleshooting.html%23troubleshooting__2
[47] https://docs.alfresco.com/troubleshooting.html%23troubleshooting__3
[48] https://docs.alfresco.com/troubleshooting.html%23troubleshooting__4
[49] https://docs.alfresco.com/troubleshooting.html%23troubleshooting__5
[50] https://docs.alfresco.com/troubleshooting.html%23troubleshooting__8
[51] https://docs.alfresco.com/troubleshooting.html%23troubleshooting__9
[52] https://docs.alfresco.com/troubleshooting.html%23troubleshooting__10
[53] https://docs.alfresco.com/troubleshooting.html%23troubleshooting__top
[54] https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/configuring_https_servers.html
[55] https://letsencrypt.org/docs/certificates-for-localhost/
[56] https://docs.alfresco.com/sso/concepts/intro.html
[57] https://docs.alfresco.com/saml/concepts/saml-overview.html
[58] http://docs.alfresco.com/saml/tasks/saml-restapi-console.html