Content Federation Services overview

Content Federation Services (CFS) enables you to integrate data generated by multiple applications and stored in disparate databases or on multiple servers. You can access the documents through a single, consistent interface as though they were stored in one Content Engine object store.

Configuration overview

You can configure a FileNet P8 system to use fixed content devices, federated systems, or a combination of both. Federation is the process by which the metadata in an external repository is moved into the FileNet P8 system. Federation includes the ability of a P8 Platform application, such as Enterprise Manager or Workplace XT, to later retrieve the document from the external repository. No changes are made to either the content or the metadata at federation.

Starting with a central FileNet P8 system with applications running on Content Engine, use the Add a Fixed Content Device wizard to build and configure the components of your system. This wizard interface is used to add both fixed content devices and federated components to the central P8 system.

Configuring P8 to use fixed content devices

A FileNet P8 system connected to fixed content devices most closely resembles the traditional way that the FileNet P8 system has been configured in the past. The fixed content devices can consist of an MSAR, optical, or tape silo, and are part of an IS system used primarily for direct data storage and retrieval. Use the Add a Fixed Content Device wizard within Enterprise Manager to add these components to the system. In this configuration:

Federated configuration

A FileNet P8 system in a federated configuration can access information that has been collected, managed, and stored on a different system. One major benefit of a federated system is the convenience of a single user interface. FileNet P8 can connect to an IS and CMOD repository. In addition, through the IBM Content Integrator, FileNet P8 can connect to Documentum, Livelink, CS, CM8, and other repositories. These repositories are referred to as external repositories.

NOTE For Documentum, CFS supports federation of document items only. Workflow items are not returned by queries and will not be federated.

Use the Add a Fixed Content Device wizard in Enterprise Manager to add these components to the system, even though federated components are very different functionally than traditional fixed content devices (MSAR, OSAR, and so on)

In a federated configuration:

CFS provides this integration of external repositories with FileNet P8 by creating a reference to the source document that is used to retrieve the document content from the external repository. In addition to creating a reference to the source document, CFS also provides a mechanism for mapping source document metadata to Content Engine document properties. The process of creating a Content Engine document that references a document in an external repository and mapping the source document metadata to Content Engine document properties is called federation.

The federation process is managed by sets of rules and data mappings that define what information to retrieve, when to federate documents, and how to map metadata information from the source document to document property values in Content Engine. In addition, if the Content Engine object store is configured for full-text indexing, the content of the federated documents is indexed so that text-based searches can locate the documents.

After documents have been federated, they can be used with all of the standard FileNet P8 features, including property searches, text searches, records management, workflows, and so on. To keep data in the Content Engine object store current with the data in the external repository, you can configure the federation process to run on a daily basis.

For the most part, the data flow is from the source repository to the FileNet P8 system. Updates to property values and content made in the source repository are transferred to the Content Engine object store, but the reverse is not true in general. Delete requests and lockdown actions from FileNet P8 applications are transferred to the source repository to prevent the source document from being changed.

Other CFS capabilities include failover, failure recovery, duplicate detection, federation of external repository updates, federation of documents with version series, and storage of general configuration information. CFS is supported for high availability environments.

Combining a federated system and fixed content devices

CFS offers a broad range of options bringing versatility to the document management process. You can combine a federated FileNet P8 system with fixed content devices. You can configure a FileNet P8 system with a direct connection to a fixed content device while simultaneously accessing and retrieving information from a Documentum system with the IBM Content Integrator. An IS system can be configured as both a fixed content device, strictly for document storage and retrieval, or as a federated system. In both cases, metadata is stored in Content Engine. As a federated system, metadata can also be stored in the IS database.

Version mirroring

If the source repository supports versioning, then the federation process maintains the relationship between the versions of the source document by creating a matching version series in the Content Engine object store. As new versions of the document are created, scheduled federation runs will update the matching version series in FileNet P8 with the new versions.

Full-text searching

Content Engine supports content-based retrieval using the Content Search Engine for documents that have been federated. With content-based retrieval, you can search an object store for objects that contain specific words or phrases embedded in document content or embedded in string properties of objects that have been configured for full-text indexing. If the object store is configured for full-text indexing, then as the documents are federated, the content and metadata properties are indexed. However, there could be a time lag between the federated documents being visible within the object store and the indexing completion.

Records management and lockdown

IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records can be used with federated documents. An integral part of the records management process is ensuring that documents that have been declared as records are not deleted until the time specified by the records management disposition schedule. In FileNet P8, once a document is declared a record, it is automatically locked down such that the content of the existing version can only be deleted by the InfoSphere Enterprise Records application. When a federated document is declared a record, the content must still be locked down, even though the content resides in the external repository.

The lockdown mechanism used on the source content is repository dependent. In general, Content Federation Services updates the security settings on the source document so that delete rights are removed from all users except for Administrators. If the security update in the source repository fails for any reason, then the record declaration does not complete.