DNN - differences between Document Library and Digital Asset Management - dotnetnuke

The documentation on DNN sites speak of two default modules namely Document Library and Digital Asset Management. The two modules seem to be quite similar in functionality i.e. they both provide a mechanism to handle documents. But I haven't found any documentation that explains the different scenarios in which they are to be used. Could anybody explain the different scenarios they are meant to be used in? And which of these modules provides more flexibility in terms of URL management and handling large number of documents of the order of 60,000 to 70,000?

Digital Asset Management is the "File Manager" module in current versions of DNN.
The Document Library module is intended for collections of documents managed outside of the file manager. It is more suited for presenting a display of documents, descriptions, download links, etc.
For managing large number of modules, you might want to look at the DMX Pro module from Bring2Mind.net.

Or, For managing large number of files, you might want to look at the DNNUserFiles module from Evotiva.com (Disclaimer: Yes, I'm the author)

Related

Apache Solr: Can apache solr be used as a third part system for indexing and searching for documents from different websites?

I am working on implementing a research web application or portal that integrates different research portal or website using an open source platform called search kit. The web application will act as a central point of access to research publications on different research portals. To do this, I also need to implement a third party system that does the following:
Searches for documents based on user query on the other different research portals and presents or displays the results to the users on my web application.
Index the documents
Should be used by system administrators to configure the web application. Whereby system administrators can add,remove or modify the URL of the website Solr is pulling documents from
Displays the results to the user in one standard format.
My question is, can apache solr be used to implement the third party system? if not, what open source platform or way would you recommend I used to implement the third party system?
In general, Solr seems like a good fit here, but you might need some custom code (apart from configuration) here and there. To go through the points:
Querying is one of the main features of Solr, so this is definitely possible.
Indexing is handled by Solr.
There was a component for Solr called "Data Import Handler" that supported indexing from URLs (see the docs). However, this was removed from the main Solr distribution, and was moved to a separate package. This package doesn't seem to be actively maintained though, so you will probably run into some problems if you decide to use it. The alternative is to develop your document-pulling code yourself.
Solr can display the results in multiple formats, but it still might not support the exact format you would like it to be. In this case, you need to build your transformation based on the result from Solr.

Comparing NodeJS drivers and modules for SQL

We are starting a new nodejs project. Our current database is MS SQL. We need to select a module and drivers to use. I'm trying to find a good way to compare all of these different tools without needing to install them individually and test them on our systems. I'll find the occasional blog post that compares a few of them, but I often find these articles to be terse and will only say something like "tedious is light weight". I'd like to know how light weight it is compared to other drivers. Are there any benchmarks out there?
Aside from drivers a good module is needed. There are several that interest me such as sequelize, mssql and seriate. Some of these can use similar drivers in their configuration. However, the modules themselves need metrics to compare them. Right now the best method seems to be scanning the documentation and the internet getting information about these modules piece by piece. It seems like npm should have some page that compares the different modules that are offered on it. Keep in mind I'd like a source that has quantifiable comparisons between these modules and drivers.
This question might be closed as answer is heavily opinion based.
Anyway, what you could do is to search here: https://nodejsmodules.org then check how popular particular module is by checking download count in NPM, this is probably the best (quick) way to minimise the risk to pick wrong module.

Converting App Engine frontend versions to modules

I've slightly "abused" the front-end "version" concept in App Engine (java), to implement modules before they were introduced. I have a configuration consisting of: module1-dot-myapp.appspot.com, module2-dot-myapp.appspot.com, module3-dot-myapp.appspot.com, etc., based on the version concept (more commonly used with numbers: 1-dot-myapp, etc.).
Specifically, the code in all versions is identical, but each is practically used for different purposes. This separation allows different clients to use different api versions, separate deployment schedule, staging versions, logs separation, etc.
My question is, under theses conditions, what is the best way to convert my application to "real" modules? such that "module1" is an actual module (still mapped to the same url - module1-dot-appspot.com)?
Note: my answer comes from a somehow similar exercise but in the python GAE runtime, there is likely aditional Java-specific stuff to look at as well.
First things to look at (possible show stoppers) are the app-level configs - those will need to be merged in from your different old app versions (if they exist) and will be shared by all your modules (or directed to the default module only), so they might not work as before, best to revisit the latest documentation on these configs:
dispatch file
queue
cron
DB indexes
Note: in multi-module python apps these configs might not be updated automatically at app upload, each of them may need to be uploaded explicitly, using the respective app configuration utility options.
The separate deployment schedule is almost free (each module can be deployed independently). But there may be some impact due to the app-level configs (multiple CLI invocations instead of a single one, for example)
The logs separation comes for free.
The staging story might need to be revisited, depending on what exactly you mean by that.
Other than that - you'd bring the different old versions of your app in separate module sub-directories in your new app. Check if your version control system supports this easier. The old app config file(s) would need to be "translated" into the respective module's config file(s) and some of the info would go into the new app's top dir config file.
The module URL routing should allow transparent URL mapping, but note that the URLs will actually be <module>-dot-<appname>.appspot.com and the only way to get exactly the same URLs would be to delete all older app versions before deploying the new one (due to conflicting URLs: <module>-dot-<appname> vs <appversion>-dot-<appname>, not sure if you'll get the old or the new code serving or if it's even possible to deploy the new code without error). You could use a new appname at first, just to get all ducks lined up before the switchover (possibly a new staging story you might consider going forward).
You might find helpful complementing URL routing with a dispatch file if you didn't have one before.
Finally, if you have identical files shared across modules you may consider a single per-app copy of the file, symlinked into the respective modules, if that's easier or makes sense from your source code management prospective.

Publish one product to multiple sites

Is there a way to have one product definition and have it publish to multiple sites? I am looking for this ability specifically in DNN or Umbraco, either with free or paid extensions. I did install both the platforms and played with the free extensions and looked for any extension offering such functionality but did not find one. Any links or pointers are highly appreciated!
I had looked up for this info in many places before reaching over to the expert pool here, hoping to get some hints;
In umbraco there is the built in /base extension (http://our.umbraco.org/wiki/reference/umbraco-base) which enables you to access product data that is maintained in Umbraco from other websites. Base is REST-ish so the implementation is well documented - you can access the data as XML or JSON (Returning Json instead of XML with Umbraco Base).
Also as the implementation is REST-ish the other websites that consume the content maintained in the core site could be written in anything that can consume a REST feed eg html & javascript.
It's not 100% clear to me what setup you're after, but if you're looking to set up a traditional Authoring/Delivery configuration - one of the few paid offerings Umbraco has is called Courier. It's a very reasonably priced (~$135USD,/99EUR) deployment manager that handles syncing content between two sites, i.e., Authoring and a Delivery server.
It's a very smart tool that manages content, configuration, and dependencies. It's neat and also supports a great open-source project!
If you're looking to setup something more like a centralized product database that is used by many sites - amelvin is on good pointer with BASE. They have a nice api where you may also set up your own webservice (beyond their own webservice functaionality!).
If you need this centralized product data to notify the other sites to update their caches - i encourage you to look into the 'distributedCall' functionality.
There's a bit of documentation on distributed calls in this load-balancing tutorial that may help understand the concept a bit better.
...Hope this helps get pointed in the right direction.

Local data sources for GIS Map plugin?

I am developing an ASP.NET intranet application that needs to have an interactive map interface.
There are some pretty neat Silverlight mapping plugins that I think could work well, specifically:
ArcGIS Silverlight API: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/apis/silverlight/
DeepEarth mapping framework: http://www.codeplex.com/deepearth
There are no doubt many more plugins out there that will allow easy interaction between ASP.NET and the mapping interface (please suggest some if I've missed the major players).
My major concern however is using these tools with local data sources. What is the best option here? All I need is some basic satellite imagery of moderate resolution and some overlays of cities and country borders. Can I download a dataset of these images? I dont really care if they are up to date or not, so long as the photos were taken in the last 20 years.
I want to be able to use local data sources because external internet connections could be very slow due to the nature of the organisation's work, Intranet communication will always be much faster.
To summarise:
1.) where can I find a dataset of moderate quality global satellite imagery?
2.) Which web based mapping plugin will allow me to plug into such a data source?
If I can get something like the DeepEarth demo (http://www.codeplex.com/deepearth) but grabbing the data from internal company servers I would be very happy.
You can check out the free geodata listing at:
- http://www.freegis.org/database/?cat=1
Or have a look at:
http://downloads.cloudmade.com/
where cloudmade provides downloadable openstreetmap data converted to shape files.

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