Enterprise Server plug-ins

Enterprise Server plug-ins add (custom) functionality to Enterprise, for instance for connecting to external sources (such as a Drupal Web site or a database), or for automating specific processes.

Plug-in types

Two types of Server plug-ins exist:

System plug-ins. Provide default Enterprise functionality.

Custom plug-ins. Any custom-made plug-in that is added to the default installation of Enterprise.

Connectors

Each Server plug-in has its own feature and consists of one or more Connectors, each implementing a part of the feature. The plug-in acts as a container for these connectors, it describes their functionality and make it possible to activate or deactivate the feature.

Two types of connectors exist:

Service connector

Business connector

Service connectors

Service connectors can be used to interfere with the standard behavior of services offered by the application server. The “Overrule System” Run Mode make it possible for a connector to entirely implement a certain service, meaning that the standard service is not used at all. With the Before/After flavors, connectors can act before or after the system or manipulate information received from client applications or information that is about to leave the Server and sent to client applications.

The following types of Service connectors exist:

Run modes

The Run Mode defines the way and the events under which the connector is called by the Server. The following Run Modes exist:

• For connectors of type Service:
• Before System
• After System
• Before- and After System
• Overrule System

• For other connector types:
• Synchronous

Priority

Connectors can be given a priority value which indicates the order in which the connector needs to be called. This is useful when there are multiple connectors implementing the same interface.

Server Plug-ins Maintenance page

The Server plug-ins are controlled through the Server Plug-ins Maintenance page. It shows the current state of the plug-in and the connector details, and make it possible to register, install, activate, or deactivate the Server plug-in functionality.

Figure: The Server Plug-ins Maintenance page

Accessing the page

In Enterprise Server, click Server Plug-ins in the Maintenance menu or on the Home page.

Page setup

The page is divided into two sections: a list of server plug-ins and their details on the left, and a list of plug-in connectors and their details on the right.

To display the details for a plug-in or connector, select that item from the list.

Implementation stages

During its use, a Server plug-in can go through the following stages:

1. Added to the Enterprise Server folder
2. Registered in the database
3. Installed
4. Activated
5. Deactivated

To indicate its state, the following icons are used on the Server Plug-in Maintenance page:

Activated.The plug-in is correctly installed.

Deactivated. The functionality of the plug-in has been turned off.

Error. Errors occurred during the installation.

Tip: Hover the mouse pointer over an icon to display additional information about the state of the plug-in.

Server plug-ins that are shipped with Enterprise 10

• Content Station CS4 Article Conversion. (Not available in Enterprise Server 10.7 or higher) For converting Adobe Creative Suite CS4 (WWCX) articles to the Adobe Creative Suite CS5 (WCML) format with the help of InDesign Server CS5 or higher. This happens on-the-fly when a CS4 article is opened for editing using the Multi-Channel Text Editor in Content Station.
• Content Station Overrule Compatibility. Enables support for Issues that overrule their Brand settings.
• CSV Data Source. Allows 65bit’s EasyCatalog users to connect to a text file through Enterprise.
• DataSource Record Structure. For use with 65bit’s EasyCatalog. Checks the consistency of a record set structure returned by a data source. For example: all records should have the same amount of fields. If a record set is not consistent, the plug-in will log the occurrence in the Enterprise Server log files.
• DataSource Workflow Service. For use with 65bit’s EasyCatalog. Copies updates when a document is copied within Enterprise. This plug-in is required when using Data Sources in combination with live updates.
• Drupal 7 - Publish Forms. For publishing content to a Web site based on Drupal 7.
  See Integrating Drupal 7 in Enterprise Server (Publish Forms).
• Hunspell Spelling. For enabling the Hunspell spelling engine (installed separately), used in the Multi-Channel Text Editor in Content Station.
  See Configuring the Hunspell spelling engine.
• ImageMagick Preview. For enabling image preview generation using ImageMagick and Ghostscript (installed separately).
  See Installing ImageMagick.
• InCopy HTML Conversion. For converting HTML articles to text so that editing is possible in InDesign or InCopy.
• OpenCalais Suggestion Provider. For connecting to OpenCalais, an external suggestion provider which generates tags (keywords) by scanning the content of articles.
  See Setting up the auto-suggestion feature for adding tags.
• PHP Preview and Meta Data. For generating previews for JPG, PNG, and GIF images. For Enterprise Server 10.5.2 – 10.5.x, Enterprise Server 10.6.1 – 10.6.x, or any higher version of Enterprise Server: also reads basic metadata of uploaded files, such as the file size.
• Sips Preview. For using a Sips command for preview generation.
• Solr Search. For enabling the Solr search engine (installed separately).
  See Setting up Solr.

Document history

• 14 August 1019: Updated section 'Server plug-ins that are shipped with Enterprise 10' by adding information about Enterprise Server 10.7. for the Content Station CS4 Article Conversion plug-in.