Database Publishing Jon Whitener Web Communications Specialist University of Detroit Mercy Jon Whitener Web Communications Specialist University of Detroit Mercy

How many of you…  New to Cascade Server?  Are adminstrators?  Use Cascade for multiple, separate but related sites?  Have worked on any Web site that pulled data dynamically from a DB?  Have used Cascade’s Database Publishing?  New to Cascade Server?  Are adminstrators?  Use Cascade for multiple, separate but related sites?  Have worked on any Web site that pulled data dynamically from a DB?  Have used Cascade’s Database Publishing?

What is Database Publishing?

Cascade Server

External Database

Cascade Server External Database Site A Site D Site 5 Site B Site C

Dynamic sites are…

Example: UDM news articles

UDM’s sites College of HealthProfessions BusinessAdmin.www (General site) School of Dentistry College of Liberal Arts & Education Alumni College of Engineering & Science

The idea: share news  Enable each site to share (access / use) the news articles of every other site  Selective inclusion  E.g.  The Business site can include news from the Engineering site, like Ford CEO visit  The Alumni site can pull articles from any site where alumni are mentioned  Enable each site to share (access / use) the news articles of every other site  Selective inclusion  E.g.  The Business site can include news from the Engineering site, like Ford CEO visit  The Alumni site can pull articles from any site where alumni are mentioned

Sharing isn’t always easy  Sharing articles withinCascade was difficult and/or inefficient  Index blocks  Highly contorted XSL  Publishing to various sites also tricky  Publish all news pages on all sites  We did get it working …  Sharing articles withinCascade was difficult and/or inefficient  Index blocks  Highly contorted XSL  Publishing to various sites also tricky  Publish all news pages on all sites  We did get it working …

Sharing isn’t always easy  Upgrade to version 5 broke it

Database Publishing offers a better way

“DBP” for short (“DaBaPu” didn’t test well)

The goals  Enable separate sites to share news articles  Avoid duplication of content  Avoid multiple publishes for each article creation / edit  Use a tested, familiar technique  Enable separate sites to share news articles  Avoid duplication of content  Avoid multiple publishes for each article creation / edit  Use a tested, familiar technique

How to do it with DBP?

 In addition to their separate target sites, all sites publish to the shared, external database

 Sites can now select from all news articles

Tagging articles  Articles have custom metadata to indicate appropriate audiences  Alumni, current students, faculty, etc.  Also, path and Site ID are informative  Live sites can select appropriate articles using these criteria  Articles have custom metadata to indicate appropriate audiences  Alumni, current students, faculty, etc.  Also, path and Site ID are informative  Live sites can select appropriate articles using these criteria

How does it work?

Overview  Set up external database  Set up Administration assets in Cascade  Create content assets in Cascade  Create PHP Web page that can perform live queries of external database  Set up external database  Set up Administration assets in Cascade  Create content assets in Cascade  Create PHP Web page that can perform live queries of external database

Set up external database  MySQL 5.0+ required  Grant access to Cascade Server  Grant access to production Web servers  May want direct access (e.g. Navicat)  Follow security practices (omitted here)  MySQL 5.0+ required  Grant access to Cascade Server  Grant access to production Web servers  May want direct access (e.g. Navicat)  Follow security practices (omitted here)

Set up external database  External database schema is set by Hannon Hill  We’ll look at schema later  External database schema is set by Hannon Hill  We’ll look at schema later

Set up Cascade Administration assets  Transport  Target  Destination  Template  Transport  Target  Destination  Template  Configuration Set  Metadata Set  Data Definition  Content Type

Transport

Site Id User

Transport Test “Test Transport” option appears when a Transport is selected

Target Out. File Ext. Base Folder

Destination DB Transport

Test Destination

Template

Configuration Set  We create a new Set here  One Configuration pointing to new DBP Template  Would likely make sense to add DBP Configuration to one of your existing Configuration Sets  We create a new Set here  One Configuration pointing to new DBP Template  Would likely make sense to add DBP Configuration to one of your existing Configuration Sets

Configuration Set

Bear with me …

Data Definition

Metadata Set  Custom (“dynamic”) metadata will be used to make the news articles easily selectable  Here, we add “audience” information, i.e. indicate which audiences would be interested in the news article  Custom (“dynamic”) metadata will be used to make the news articles easily selectable  Here, we add “audience” information, i.e. indicate which audiences would be interested in the news article

Metadata Set

 When creating / editing a page, custom metadata will look like:

Content Type

Site ID cascades up  Some administrative assets are specific to a site number, i.e. the Site ID  Transport  Destination  Target  Template  Configuration  Configuration Set  Content Type  Some administrative assets are specific to a site number, i.e. the Site ID  Transport  Destination  Target  Template  Configuration  Configuration Set  Content Type

Create content assets  Create Page with new Content Type

Create content assets  Create Page with new Content Type

Now we’re getting to the good stuff  Let’s publish a page from the general site – Site ID 1

Peek at the DB  External database contains five tables  page  metadata  metadata_custom  file  folder  We’re concerned with the first three  External database contains five tables  page  metadata  metadata_custom  file  folder  We’re concerned with the first three

Table: page  After first Page publish, we have 1 record: id4 account_id1 site_id1 cms_idcef30e52c66d e7b6b1a1634 folder_id c66d bbff883f8b metadata_id1736 namewww-page-1 pathwww.udmercy.edu/dbp/page-1 content This is a headline This is REVISED body text, in a p element. This is some more, plus a picture, below: A link to the home page.

Table: page  After first Page publish, we have 1 record: id4Table’s auto-increment key account_id1Always 1 site_id1Set in Transport cms_idcef30e52c66d e7b6…Page’s ID in Cascade folder_id c66d bbf…Folder’s ID in Cascade metadata_id1736Foreign key  metadata table namewww-page-1Cascade system name pathwww.udmercy.edu/dbp/page-1Cascade path (≠ published path) content This is a headline This is REVISED body text, in a p element. … XML of the page’s DEFAULT region. (Would include any transformations applied to the DEFAULT region.)

Table: metadata  One record, with the fields you know from a Cascade’s Wired Metadata pane: id account_id site_id display_name title summary teaser keywords description author review_date start_date end_date last_published_at last_published_by created_by created_at updated_by updated_at idhere matches page.metadata_id

Table: metadata_custom  Here, we have two records for the page, because we selected two checkbox values id51 account_id1 site_id1 file_id[Null] folder_id[Null] page_id4 fieldaudiences valueAlumni id52 account_id1 site_id1 file_id[Null] folder_id[Null] page_id4 fieldaudiences valueStudents Foreign key  page.id First recordSecond record

Time to share  Repeat steps, from Transport up, for another site (Business) with Site ID 2  Publish a page from the Business site to the external database  Now the DB contains data published from two separate sites  Site ID 1: general site (www)  Site ID 2: College of Business site  Repeat steps, from Transport up, for another site (Business) with Site ID 2  Publish a page from the Business site to the external database  Now the DB contains data published from two separate sites  Site ID 1: general site (www)  Site ID 2: College of Business site

Tables after Site 2 publish (Selected fields)  page  metadata

Tables after Site 2 publish (Selected fields)  metadata_custom

Create PHP Web page  PHP to connect to database

Create PHP Web page  The SQL we’ll use in this PHP page

Create PHP Web page  PHP that queries DB and creates link list Note and.htm

The result

You will need to add another Configuration to actually publish the news article to the Web server so the links will work

Thank you!