Improving the Multi-Channel Text Editor performance for Content Station 9 users on remote locations

Info: This feature requires Content Station version 9.5.0 or higher and Enterprise Server 9.5.0 or higher.

Content Station users who work on remote locations and who are connected to Enterprise Server through a slow connection can suffer from poor performance (such as long waiting times) when working on articles, especially when these articles include previews generated by InDesign Server.

To improve performance, articles can be compressed before they are sent over and uncompressed when they are opened.

Note: Tests have shown a reduction in size by a factor of 10 when using file compression.

When should article compression be used?

Article compression should only be used for Content Station users who work on remote locations and who are connected to Enterprise Server through a slow connection.

Content Station users on remote locations with a fast connection or those working on a local network should be excluded from this feature: for them, the process of compressing and uncompressing the article actually slows down the process of working with articles.

Defining remote users and local users

Article compression is disabled by default and is controlled by defining the user's IP address — or a range of IP addresses — in the configserver.php file of Enterprise Server through an 'include' and 'exclude' option.

It works as follows:

• Remote users are all users who are defined in the 'include' option. For these users, article compression is enabled.
• Local users are all users who are defined in the 'exclude' option. For these users, article compression is not enabled.

Configuration steps

Making use of this feature requires the following steps:

• (Mac OS/Linux only) Recompiling Zlib in PHP
• Configuring Enterprise Server

1. Recompiling Zlib

(Mac OS/Linux only) The article compression is done with Deflate compression which relies on Zlib in PHP. On Windows, PHP has built-in support for Zlib support, but on Mac OS and Linux you might need to configure PHP. For instructions, see the PHP documentation: Zlib installation.

2. Configuring Enterprise Server

Step 1. In the configserver.php file of Enterprise Server, locate the Remote users section.

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
// Remote users 
// ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Step 2. Define the IP addresses of the users who should be treated as a remote user under the INCLUDE option (for details about defining these addresses see below):

define( 'REMOTE_LOCATIONS_INCLUDE', serialize( array(
)));

Step 3. Define the IP addresses of the users who should be treated as a local user under the EXCLUDE option (for details about defining these addresses see below):

define( 'REMOTE_LOCATIONS_EXCLUDE', serialize( array(
))); 

Defining IP addresses

Use any of the following notations:

define( 'REMOTE_LOCATIONS_INCLUDE', serialize( array(
'192.0.0.1'
)));

define( 'REMOTE_LOCATIONS_INCLUDE', serialize( array(
'192.268.0.1',
'2001:db8::/64'
)));