Architectural Overview

Last updated 8 days ago

Which components constitute a CoreMedia system

Overview

Conceptually, a CoreMedia system can be divided into the Content Management Environment where editors create and manage the content and the Content Delivery Environment where the content is delivered to the customers. Some components are used in both environments, mostly to give you a realistic preview of your websites. The following image provides an overview of a CoreMedia system with most of the components installed:

CoreMedia System Overview

General Workflow

On the production side of the CoreMedia system, content is created and edited with CoreMedia Studio, with custom clients or imported by the Content Hub or importers. Once editing or import of contents is completed, they are approved and published via the CoreMedia Workflow Server. During the publication process, the content is put online onto the Master Live Server. If available, Replication Live Servers get noticed and reproduce the changes. Then the content is put online by the Replication Live Server. User generated content is produced via Elastic Social and is stored in MongoDB. Editors can use the Studio plugin to moderate this content.

Content Delivery

The CoreMedia CAE in combination with Adaptive Personalization and Elastic Social creates dynamic HTML pages or any other format (XML, PDF, etc.) from the internal and external content and CoreMedia templates.

Headless Server, on the other hand, delivers content from CoreMedia Content Cloud as JSON data via a GraphQL endpoint. This gives you you full flexibility in choosing your frontend technology. The Headless Server is fully integrated in CoreMedia Studio. Therefore, you can preview and edit all changes in Studio.

Content Personalization

CoreMedia contains the Personalization Hub which offers client-side and server-side personalization.

Client-side personalization allows to connect the CoreMedia system with third-party personalization systems like Kibo on client-side.

Server-side personalization enables enterprises to deliver the most appropriate content to users depending on the ‘context’ – the interaction between the user, the device, the environment and the content itself. Server-side personalization is a powerful personalization tool. Through a series of steps it can identify relevant content for individuals. It can draw on a user’s profile, commerce segment, preferences and even social network behavior. Use

The GUI of both variants is integrated into CoreMedia Studio for easy creation of personalized content.

Content Storage

The Content Servers store their content in relational database systems. Large blobs can also be stored in the file system. User generated content is stored in a MongoDB database.

A CoreMedia CMS system comes with Apache Solr as the default search engine, which can be used from the editors on content management site and from the applications on content delivery site. The editor, for example, can perform a fast full text search in the complete repository. The pluggable search engine API allows you to use other search engines than Apache Solr for the website search.

Commerce Hub

For eCommerce use cases, the CoreMedia system can be connected with eCommerce systems through the Commerce Hub. Content from the commerce server is not copied into the CoreMedia system. Instead, references to the content are hold and are resolved when content is delivered.

User Management

CoreMedia Content Cloud has an integrated user management, but also supports an LDAP server for user management.

Communication of the Components

Communication between the individual components on both the production side and the Live Server is performed via CORBA and HTTP. MongoDB uses the Mongo Wire Protocol. The Production and Live Systems can be secured with a Firewall if the servers are located on different computers. The servers contact the databases over a JDBC interface,

CoreMedia Content Cloud and the commerce systems communicate over REST interfaces. The concrete communication differs slightly based on the selected deployment scenario which are the content-led scenario for HCL Commerce and the commerce-led scenario.

The following table lists all components, describes the purpose of a component and shows with which component a specific component communicates.

ApplicationPurposeMultiple InstancesCommunicates with
Content Management ServerManages the content in the Management Environment and publishes content to the Master Live Server.No
  • All clients
  • Publishes content to the Master Live Server
  • External relational database
  • Search Engine
  • Studio Server
  • LDAP Server
Master Live ServerManages the content in the Delivery EnvironmentMultiple instances when Multi-Master is used
  • All clients
  • External relational database
  • LDAP Server
Replication Live ServerServes content to the CAEs and Headless ServerMultiple instances can be attached to one Master Live Server
  • Content Application Engine
  • Headless Server
  • External relational database
Workflow ServerExecutes workflowsNo
  • Content Management Server
  • External relational database
  • MongoDB
Site ManagerManagement tool for workflows and usersYes
  • Content Management Server
  • Workflow Server
Studio ServerContent editing and management. Hosts management extensions for Elastic Social and Adaptive Personalization. One web application
  • Content Management Server
  • Workflow Server
  • External relational database
  • Search Engine
  • MongoDB
Search EngineIndexes content and provides searches functionality. Yes
  • Content Management Server
  • External relational database
  • Search Engine
CAE FeederFeeds content beans into the Search EngineMultiple instances possible, for example when reindexing.
  • Content Management Server
  • External relational database
  • Search Engine
Content FeederServes content to the Search EngineMultiple instances possible, for example when reindexing.
  • Content Management Server
  • Search Engine
Content Application EngineServes sites to the customer. Hosts Elastic Social and Adaptive Personalization extension.Multiple instances can be attached to one Master Live Server or Replication Live Server
  • Content Server
  • Search Engine
  • MongoDB database for Elastic Social
  • Custom external systems
Headless ServerServes content to the customer.Multiple instances can be attached to one Master Live Server or Replication Live Server
  • Replication Live Server
  • Search Engine
  • Commerce Adapter
Commerce AdapterConnects external commerce systems with the CoreMedia system.Multiple instances can connect multiple commerce systems.
  • Studio
  • Headless Server
  • Content Application Engine
ImporterImports content into the Content Management Server. Yes
  • Content Management Server

Further Reading

Copyright © 2024 CoreMedia GmbH, CoreMedia Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Loading...