Document management ability is a priority requirement for every enterprise management system, and therefore a must have features for all enterprise portals and portlets. The name Alfresco is synonymous with document management and is used by large scale to small scale enterprises alike. Alfresco in itself can be used to create an enterprise management system, but except document management capabilities, it lacks in features and flexibility as a portal solution.
And that’s where Liferay comes in.
It is an awesome portal technology that not only integrates seamlessly with one of the most popular document management system Alfresco, but is also easy to use, easy to customize, and have lots of features to handle what every enterprise portal needs.
Integrating Alfresco with Liferay is the way to go if you want to create a robust enterprise management portal with awesome and flexible document management capabilities; all this in a budget cost that perhaps no other combination can beat.
Why choose Liferay?
Liferay is a robust enterprise level portal technology that is open source and comes in a free community edition as well. Even though it comes packed with features, you can also use it as a stand-alone framework over which you can build your own custom applications. However those are not the only reasons why we chose Liferay as our best portal development platform. Here are some most important reasons why Liferay is great for enterprises both small and large:
Built Using JAVA: The most important part about Liferay is that it is built using JAVA and is open source which means that it is highly flexible and customizable. Integrating it with custom enterprise level applications, which are also mostly built in JAVA, is a piece of cake. No matter the words barely find its way to penning it down, this one quality is indeed the deciding factor for lots of organizations.
Modern Layouts and Themes: Just like WordPress and other well known CMS, Liferay also comes with A powerful support for themes.
Mobility Support: Since JAVA is supported by mobile devices, Liferay Mobile SDK helps you create great mobile native applications and portals providing live web experience.
A content management system for organizations: Liferay comes equipped with a WYSIWYG editor to create great web portals. In addition it has in-built features that most organizations instead pay dearly to integrate third party plug-ins like version control, customizable approval workflow, custom structuring, drag-and-drop content management, social interaction capabilities etc. Liferay comes already equipped with feature-rich Forums and Message Boards, Wiki, and Blog engines complete with moderator controls, social equity and rating, flagging, related assets, and auditing.
Integration with everything: A flexible JAVA platform means that integrating Liferay with any application is a matter of finding a simple API, if it’s not already available in Liferay that is. The platform comes with an extensive library of Java programming API, SDK, and IDE tools extending Liferay’s reach to technologies and solutions seamlessly.
Everything a techie needs: For those techies interested in knowing what integration features Liferay has, here’s a short list:
- Development interfaces for Web services integration with every technology including JSON, REST, SOAP, and CORBA/ORB
- Ability to implement SSO deep-linking
- WSRP and Java Portal Specification portlets (JSR-286)
- embedded Flash and AJAX controls and widgets
- Velocity and Free-maker templates
- Alloy and YahooUI widgets and controls
- Access to an enormous library of additional plugins including ForgeLife eCommerce.
Why Alfresco For Document Management?
We have been going on about why to use Liferay, but what about Alfresco? Is there no alternative to it? Well in short there isn’t, at least not with the same capabilities and price. Alfresco is open source like Liferay and comes in a free-to-use edition. As said earlier, Alfresco can be used as a CMS but it has limited extendibility and features as compared to Liferay in this regard. However it excels as document management platform and that’s what it is mostly used.
It’s easy to use, easy to integrate and easy to customize. It is a platform that seamlessly integrates with Liferay and that is why it is a choice of DMC to be integrated with Liferay.
An Extraordinary Combination
Alfresco and Liferay combination is what most enterprises go for when they want to create their own portal. Both are open source and come in free editions. Implementation costs of both are friendly enough and both are easily customizable and extendable. Most importantly, since they are developed by communities, you can find a ton of material for support all available in open forums and discussion. So next time you need to create your own portal, you know what to use.
Pratyush Kumar
