“For auditing purposes, we’d like to keep track of which user released a page.
  Is there a ‘IoPageInfo_’ variable or another way to capture the user id of the user that released a page in a workflow generated e-mail?”

Turns out that unfortunately there is not, but it occurred to me that this function is not so well documented.

Below is a list of the codes I have been able to identify, valid for v10:

<%ioparentpageinfo_headline%>
<%ioparentpageinfo_pageid%>
<%ioparentpageinfo_languagevariantid%>
<%ioparentpageinfo_pageguid%>
<%ioparentpageinfo_template%>
<%ioparentpageinfo_createdat%>
<%ioparentpageinfo_changedat%>
<%ioparentpageinfo_createdby%>
<%ioparentpageinfo_changedby%>
<%ioparentpageinfo_linkname%>

<%iolinkinfo_name%>
<%iolinkinfo_changedat%>
<%iolinkinfo_changedby%>
<%iolinkinfo_action%>

<%iopageinfo_headline%>
<%iopageinfo_pageid%>
<%iopageinfo_languagevariantid%>
<%iopageinfo_pageguid%>
<%iopageinfo_template%>
<%iopageinfo_createdat%>
<%iopageinfo_changedat%>
<%iopageinfo_createdby%>
<%iopageinfo_changedby%>
<%iopageinfo_action%>

<%iokeywordinfo_keywordguid%>
<%iokeywordinfo_keyword%>
<%iokeywordinfo_category%>
<%iokeywordinfo_changedat%>
<%iokeywordinfo_status%>
<%iokeywordinfo_changedby%>
<%iokeywordinfo_action%>

<%ioworkflowinfo_status%>

I cannot confirm whether this is an exhaustive list, nor whether every code is merged in all circumstances, so trial and error is in order.

• Page Cache
  C:\\<OpenTextInstallFolder>\\ASP\\PageCache
  The PageCache is generating pages for the CMS while you work in the authoring interface. So that you don’t have to load everything out of the DB everythime a page is called. This can be cleared manually when logged into the server or via CMS interface (Administer Project Structure > Project > Clear Page Cache)
• Image Cache
  C:\\<OpenTextInstallFolder>\\ASP\\ImageCache
  The ImageCache is taking care of images which have been resized on the server and are displayed to you in the browser so that the CMS doesn’t have to use imagemagick to resize images every time you load a page.
• XML Cache
  C:\\<OpenTextInstallFolder>\\ASP\\XmlCache
  The Xml Cache is on the fly generated config files for user settings, language variants and other “stuff”… It’s usually one of my first suspects when I think I need to clear some caches and it can be done via the Server Manager as well (Administer Application Server > Application Servers > SERVER NAME > Clear Language Resource Cache)
• RedDotTemp
  C:\\<OpenTextInstallFolder>\\ASP\\RedDotTemp
  This one takes care of the publishing process. All files to be published will be created in the RedDotTemp folder first, then compared to what’s on the server and then the changes will be send through via FTP (publishing to a local directory will always publish everything). Don’t just delete everything in here, the LIVESERVER folders shouldn’t be touched.

How to trick OpenText WSM into a clean full site publish

If you think the publishing process doesn’t take over all files, I suggest changing the publishing target by adding a slash (or removing it) to the target folder path. The files will still end up in the right location but the CMS will take this as a new FTP target and initiate a full site publish with a clean cache.

Disclaimer and why you shouldn’t do this in a production environment

In general I recommend to not clear caches manually unless you’re on a development environment. Doing this on a production environment will have an impact on performance and should only be executed via the CMS interface in order to prevent the deletion of folders used by the CMS.

Update 2012-02-15, I just uploaded the VB script by Alok Varma for you to download, simply rename to .vbs and it’s good to go. Here’s the file: ClearCache VB Script
Please Note: Rename the ClearCache.txt to ClearCache.vbs. We can run the vbs file from “Command Prompt” or “Microsoft (r) Console Based Script Host”. Please change the file path in script to reflect your CMS settings.

What’s on? And what’s in it for you?

There is a summary here and it has just been confirmed, that the notorious Mr. Baggs will attend and share his wisdom. There is lots to learn and many new topics for OpenText Web Site Management aka RedDot CMS.

It looks like the Microsoft based CMS gets a lot more attention at the conference, especially when compared to last year. Another sign that there’s traction again and the RedDot CMS isn’t dead after all.

Apart from the obvious RedDot sessions there are others I’ll try and get in to. On my list of training topics and breakout sessions (in- and outside of the RedDot scope) so far:

• Content Server Architecture Workshop
• Implementing OpenText Media Management 7
• Semantic Navigation
• Gamestorming
• Deloitte’s ECM for SAP Strategy in Action
• Web Site Management Enhances SAP Portal
• Hybrid Cloud example for Web Site Management

What are you interested in?

Currently I am looking into presenting a recent project of mine and adding some more value for the RedDotCMSBlog readership. I would like to organise a breakout session that suits your needs and helps you getting the most out of the conference for your projects and of course yourself.

Want to catch up?

So, what would you like to do?
Would you like to catch up?
Are you interested in a workshop? Something like this:

• Getting started with RQL
• Social Communities
• Q&A – What I always wanted to ask about RedDot
• Considerations for international projects architecture
• ….you name it

Drop me a note via twitter @markusgiesen or leave a comment with your suggestions.

Good news everyone!

It looks like RedDot isn’t dead after all, the development didn’t stop and thankfully no one followed through with the mad plan of merging RedDot and Vignette.
In the past 10 months we could see up to 9 hot fixes being released in OpenText’s Knowledge Center. Some were minor, others had some really good enhancements hidden in the release notes. So what’s happening in the land of the red dot?

OpenText is keeping things low key

There wasn’t much buzz about these fixes. OpenText kept this very quiet, in fact, I don’t think anyone would have noticed without checking the Knowledge Center. Still, there is movement, stuff is happening. If I were Mr. OpenText I would talk about this a lot more.
The OpenText Web Site Management platform, aka RedDot CMS, gets attention again and perhaps there’s actually more happening in OpenText’s Research & Development department in Oldenburg, Germany, than we all might be able to see right now. By the looks of it, some R&D people even seem to share a few insights on new features and allow a glimpse into technical backgrounds.
The marketing strategy seems to have changed. Perhaps it’s less talk, more action or perhaps one is cautious to raise expectation levels just a bit too high. So currently it’s a waiting game and very few people had the chance to look at a version 11 beta.

So what’s new in version 11 aka “Swan”?

By the look of things it will be an evolution jump, not revolutionary new features to knock your socks of. Again, this is good. Less marketing talk, more core strength for the product. Rumors have it that the new version will come with:

• .NET 4 integration, by the look of things it won’t be a full transition yet. I assume the reasoning behind this is to allow an upgrade path for older versions. It would be quite hard to upgrade with a full switch and OpenText seems to aim for an easy upgradable solution for customers running OpenText WSM 10.1 SP2 or later.
• 64bit support, allowing more speed on the CMS side of things.
• More OpenText integration points to more OpenText products. Allowing to add new solutions for the recent additions to the OpenText family.

It obviously makes sense (not just to the sales guys) to enable integration with more of OpenText’s latest acquisitions, such as the semantic search (formerly Nstein) or the multi mobile device platform “Wave” (formerly WeComm).

The CMS core product is still strong and provides a great foundation for rapid prototyping and third party integration. The effort involved is relatively small compared to the full blown ECM frameworks out there, trying to fit everything into one solution and some of them taking a spin up time of several months..

Important changes for RedDot CMS consultants and customers
Read more »

Today I’d just like to write a few lines about the changes regarding the RQL programming in version 11 of the OpenText Web Site Management Server (scheduled for the end of 2011). The change I’ll describe might sound like a totally different approach (and that is possible when looking behind the scenes) but the impact for you as someone who creates RQL based plugins is very small.
Ok, the change: In the Managment Server Version 11 (Swan version) Microsofts COM components for the RQL communication are not longer available/supported. Instead of the COM communication the OpenText Web Site Management Server will use the Windows Communication Foundation that is part of the .Net framework.

The reasons for the change

• COM components were introduced by Microsoft in the year 1993 (18! years ago) and worked well for the OpenText Web Site Management Server. But nowadays it seemed to be much better to rely on a state-of-the-art technology.
• Microsofts support for COM components ended years ago and we would like to use a fully supported technology.

What does that mean for your RQL based plugins?

• If you use the RQL webservices for the communication within your plugins, then the change does not have any impact.
• If you use the COM objects, then you’ll have to implement small changes.

In order to provide a good overview I’ll provide a function that is probably used by many developers and in a second step I’ll provide a sample RQL plugin that is intended to run on a OpenText Web Site Management Server version 11.

New functions will do the following things

• receive a string (RQL command)
• create an object (RQL object)
• execute the RQL command
• and return a XML structure (server response)

'Version 10 and earlier:
<%
function sendXML (XMLString)
   set objData = server.CreateObject("RDCMSASP.RdPageData")
   objData.XMLServerClassname="RDCMSServer.XmlServer"
   sendXML = objData.ServerExecuteXML(XMLString, sErrors)
end function
%>

'Version 11:
<%
function sendXML (XMLString)
   set objData = Server.CreateObject("OTWSMS.AspLayer.PageData")
   sendXML = objData.ServerExecuteXml(XMLString, sErrors)
end function
%>

The changes to this function are obviously very small:

• Instead of RDCMSASP.RdPageData we now use OTWSMS.AspLayer.PageData to create the RQL object.
• the line” objData.XMLServerClassname=”RDCMSServer.XmlServer” is not longer used in this function.

How do I update my old plugins to work on version 11?

• Use the Search&Replace function of your development environment: Search for “RDCMSASP.RdPageData” and replace it with “OTWSMS.AspLayer.PageData“
• “Use the Search&Replace function of your development environment: Search for “objData.XMLServerClassname=”RDCMSServer.XmlServer” and replace it with “”.

Hint 1: If your obejcts do have other names….then of course you have to use different search strings
As most people (including me) like to have a runing script instead of just a code snippet, this sample plugin might be helpful:

<%
' Create RQL Server Object And XML-Document Object
set XMLDom     = Server.CreateObject("OTWSMS.Core.RdObject")
set RQLObject  = Server.CreateObject("OTWSMS.AspLayer.PageData")
' Define Variables
Dim RQLStatement        ' Contains the RQL command
Dim RQLRequest          ' Contains the result of the RQL Server
Dim ServerError         ' Contains an error message of the RQL Server
Dim Projects            ' Contains the number of the projects

LoginGUID   = session("LoginGUID")
SessionKey  = session("SessionKey")

' Create RQL Statement (Load All Projects)
RQLStatement= "<IODATA loginguid=""" + LoginGUID + """>" + _
              "<ADMINISTRATION>" + _
              "<PROJECTS action=""list"" />" + _
              "</ADMINISTRATION>" + _
              "</IODATA>"
' Transfer RQL Statement To RQL Server Object
RQLRequest = RQLObject.ServerExecuteXml(RQLStatement, ServerError)

' Show Appearing Errors
if ServerError > "" then Response.write "An error has occured:</BR></BR>"+ServerError
' Load Result Into XML DOM
Call XMLDom.LoadXML (CStr(RQLRequest))

' Execute XML Query For Projects In XML DOM
Set XMLDom = XMLDom.ObjectByQuery ("//PROJECTS")
' List Every Project By Name
for Projects=1 to XMLDom.objects.count
   Response.write XMLDom.objects(Projects)("name")+"</BR>"
next
' Kill RQL Server Object
Set RQLObject=Nothing
%>

Hint 2: If you have a closer look at the script, you’ll notice that there is another change that I forgot to mention.
If you don’t use the Microsoft XML-DOM object but the one that is provided by the OpenText Web Site Management Server you’ll also have to change this line:

set XMLDom = Server.CreateObject("OTWSMS.Core.RdObject")

The same line in version looks like this:

set XmlDom = Server.CreateObject("RDCMSAspObj.RdObject")

So another search & replace task would look like this:
Search for “RDCMSAspObj.RdObject” and replace it with “OTWSMS.Core.RdObject”

Ok, so these were the changes regarding RQL communication. A description of the changes as well as the sample RQL plugin (above) are planned to be part of an updated RQL documentation.
To answer a question that might possibly occour: No, I’m not aware of any other changes regarding RQL.

Have fun with RQL !

Red dots inside a render tag - currently buggy. Can we fix this? Yes we can

The problem is that OpenText has changed the mechanism on how to represent a RedDot dot in the script code which caused the XML parser working differently as before. Here’s a workaround a friendly helper from OpenText recently shared with me to get this working:

Based on the parser change, there is a way to replace “//<![CDATA[" and "//]]>” code within the Render Tags.
You need to modify the main.config file, which is locating at ASP folder(<Open Text Install directory>\WS\MS\ASP).

Insert these two new replacement instructions into the main.config file:

<Replace trim="true">
  <OldValue>//<![CDATA[
  </OldValue>
  <NewValue><![CDATA[]]>
  </NewValue>
</Replace>
<Replace trim="true">
  <OldValue>//]]>
  </OldValue>
  <NewValue>
    <![CDATA[]]>
  </NewValue>
</Replace>

This piece of code has to be inserted into at the beginning of the <Configuration><Rendering><Preparse><SpotParse> block, eg:

====================================================
  <Configuration>
.........
......
  <Rendering>
    <Preparse>
      <SpotParse>
         THESE TWO NEW REPLACES
..........
............
</Configuration>
=====================================================

Save the main.config file (make sure you backup the original one), then restart the RedDot CMS Services to let the changes take effect.

As always try this one your testing environment first. Good luck and godspeed.

They: My pages won’t publish! The system is broken
You: Did you release your page?
They: Oh, wait, let me check. Uhm.. Nevermind, bye..

Just use the snippet below to include the status of pages inside the CMS pages and/or content blocks. It shows the CMS user straight away if the page has been released or is waiting for release and saves hours of phone calls.
Also: This post is re-using the code from a previous post, which you can find here.

<div class="reddot">
  <p class="right"><strong>Block/Page status: </strong>
    <reddot:cms>
      <if>
        <query valuea="Context:CurrentPage.State.ToString().ToLower().Trim()" operator="==" valueb="String:released">
	  <htmltext><span class="status Released">Released</span></htmltext>
	</query>
      </if>
      <if>
        <query valuea="Context:CurrentPage.State.ToString().ToLower().Trim()" operator="==" valueb="String:checkedout">
          <htmltext><span class="status CheckedOut">Checked Out</span></htmltext>
        </query>
      </if>
      <if>
        <query valuea="Context:CurrentPage.State.ToString().ToLower().Trim()" operator="==" valueb="String:waitingforrelease">
        <htmltext><span class="status WaitingForRelease">Waiting for Release</span></htmltext>
      </query>
    </if>
  </reddot:cms>
</p>
</div>

If you look closely you will see in the code above that I’ve added a class to each SPAN tag. If you use this method you can style the element and add colors or icons to show the status to your users.
Here’s a screenshot of a project where a co-worker (Hi, Angel) and I have used this

Showing the content block status to OpenText CMS authors, BOOM!

More? Check our the RedDot CMS tricks section for more.

Changes to the following tables can be frequent when the corresponding features are used:

Asset Manager

Workflow/Translation Workflow

Archiving

Clean up live server

Other

The following project tables are rarely changed:

Content Classes

Authorizations

Categories and Keywords

Workflow/Translation Workflow

Publication settings

Other

' Time of last change
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.ChangeTime !!%>
' GUID of user who changed page
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.ChangeUserId !!%>
' GUID of user who created the page
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.CreateUserId !!%>
' Getting an element value from a standard element in the current page
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.Elements.GetElement(std_elem).Value !!%>
' Check if it has a page in current language variant
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.ExistsInCurrentLanguage !!%>
' ?
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.HasVersionData !!%>
' Returns headline element of current page
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.Headline !!%>
' Checks if the page is currently locked
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.IsLocked !!%>
' GUID of user who has locked current page
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.LockingUserId !!%>
' Time of last save
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.SaveTime !!%>
' GUID of user who saved the page
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.SaveUserId !!%>
' State of the page (for usage/details see link below about usability)
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.State !!%>
' GUID of the used template for the current page
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.Template.Id !!%>
' Content class name of the used template for the current page
<%!! Context:CurrentPage.Template.Name !!%>
' Optimized tag to Get Element Values (version 10.1 SP1 HF1 and above)
<%!! Context:Pages.GetPage(Guid:D72F8CC0B2494BD39A74C52912E6B54E).GetElementByName(elementName).GetHtml() !!%>
' Tag to reference pages instead of creating links that are followed (version 10.1 SP1 HF1 and above)
<%!! Context:Pages.GetPage(Guid:[GUID PAGE B]).GetUrl(Bool: True) !!%>

Loaders

Loaders are responsible for type safety in the Render Tag system by parsing the following content and casting it inside the processing framework.
They are identified to the left of the colon (:) so in <%!! Context:CurrentPage.ChangeTime !!%> the loader is Context. Each loader also has a series of members being the first element immediately to the right of the colon (:), in the previous example, CurrentPage.
The following table describes the default loaders and their members. The middle column specifies parameters to members that are methods and the return value for members that are properties.

* The context object stores many properties in a hashtable called “Params”, many of these are mapped to members of the Context Loader but it possible to store arbitrary values and retrieve them again as well as manipulating them through code. This requires a thorough understanding of the execution order of Render Tags.

Supporting Classes & Info

RenderModes

• Preview = 0
• SmartEdit = 1
• Publish = 2
• Debug = 3

Tags

FileRead
<fileread filename=”" />

ForEach
<foreach object=”" itemname=”">
</foreach>

If
<if>
<query operator=”" valuea=”" valueb=”">
</query>
<query operator=”" valuea=”" valueb=”">
</query>
<query operator=”" valuea=”" valueb=”">
</query>
<query type=”else”>
</query>
</if>

The value of the operator attribute can be:
!= being “not equals”
st,lt,< being “a < b” is true
eqst,eqlt,<= being “a <= b” is true
gt,> being “a > b” is true
eqgt,>= being “a >= b” is true
anything else is treated as “equals”
Additional tags can be nested within the “query” elements.

Navigation

Output

Process

Store

Spots

Synchronous XML Spot
<reddot:cms></reddot:cms>

Asynchronous XML Spot
<reddot:asynccms></reddot:asynccms >

Direct Spot
<%!! !!%>

This document is a work in progress page, so
please add your knowledge in the comments where you see fit!

Kudos go to

Michael Phillip
Paul Gibson
Richard Hauer

Things you can do with RenderTags

• Display elements and navigation
• Methods and Properties for RenderTags (similar to .NET notation)
• Enhance your RedDot CMS usability

Got something you wanna share?

If you’ve got any RenderTags you’d like to add share them here!
Just leave a comment with RenderTag, description and CMS version below. Thanks.

Yo dawg I heard you like pages, so I put a page in yo page in yo page so you can publish while you publish while you publish.

Some background

The background story is the concept of containers within RedDot CMS.
A RedDot container basically enables you to nest n number of content blocks within another content block within another content block..
RedDot then takes these blocks and merges them into one page – very similar to a baked iFrame page (just without the iFrame).