Content federation assets

Content Federation Services is an IBM® Content Cortex feature that enables Content Cortex to manage content from multiple heterogeneous repositories as if it were native Content Cortex content. Content Cortex federates content from external repositories by using the following systems:
  • Content Federation Services for IBM Content Integrator
  • Content Federation Services for Image Services

Federation versus replication

By design, content federation is a unidirectional process. That is, although both Content Cortex and the external repository can update certain information on a document that was federated to Content Cortex, only the updates that were made in the external repository can be propagated to the corresponding content in Content Cortex, not vice versa. When the updates in Content Cortex can be propagated back to the external repository, the process is bidirectional and is referred to as replication, not federation.

At this time, Content Federation Services for Image Services is the only content federation service that supports replication.

Deployment of objects not just federation or replication information about objects

When FileNet® Deployment Manager deploys objects that are either federated or replicated in the source Content Cortex environment from an external repository, FileNet Deployment Manager deploys actual copies of the objects, not just federation or replication information about the objects. By exporting actual copies of objects, and by removing (upon import) the underlying federation or replication information that links an object to an external repository, FileNet Deployment Manager deploys objects that no longer have a connection to an external repository.

Storage policies in the destination environment

When FileNet Deployment Manager deploys objects that are federated or replicated in the source Content Cortex environment from an external repository, storage policies in the destination environment determine whether the newly deployed objects are stored in database storage, file storage, an advanced storage area, or a fixed content device such as IBM FileNet Image Services or IBM System Storage® N Series with SnapLock capabilities.

Content Federation Services for IBM Content Integrator

The following topics provide additional deployment information that is specific to IBM Content Integrator.

Deployment of IBM Content Integrator assets

Content Cortex does not have a tool that deploys assets that were federated from IBM Content Integrator. Therefore, you must manually add federated IBM Content Integrator assets into the destination environment.

Content Federation Services for Content Manager on Demand

The following topics provide additional deployment information that is specific to Content Manager on Demand.

Deployment of Content Manager on Demand assets

FileNet Deployment Manager does not support deployment of the following types of Content Manager on Demand content:

  • Advanced Function Presentation (AFP)
  • Mixed Object Document Content Architecture (MODCA)
  • Line data

If documents of these types are exported and imported, they do not display correctly in the destination environment.

Configuration of a Content Manager OnDemand application group

A Content Manager on Demand application group within a repository has only a single target object store setting. Therefore, when you configure a Content Manager OnDemand application group to reference a new target, Content Manager on Demand will no longer federate content to the previous target.

Content Federation Services for Image Services

The following topics provide additional deployment information that is specific to Image Services.

Annotations

Annotations that are associated with an Image Services replicated document can be created in the following ways:

  • Annotations can be created in Image Services and replicated to Content Cortex or they can be created in Content Cortex and replicated to Image Services. (These annotations are referred to as replicated annotations.)
  • Annotations can be created in Content Cortex after a document has been replicated to Content Cortex but they are never replicated back to Image Services. (These annotations are referred to as non-replicated annotations.)

If any of the annotations that are associated with a replicated document are replicated annotations, the Content Federation Services for Image Services add-on must be installed on the destination system before the replicated document and its replicated annotations can be deployed. The reason for this requirement is because Image Services uses a sub-class of the annotation class to store annotations. However, if the annotations that are associated with a replicated document are non-replicated annotations, or if the export manifest does not include any of the associated annotations, whether they are replicated or non-replicated annotations, then the Content Federation Services for Image Services add-on is not required on the destination system.