LiveSite and Sitepublisher 3.1 have 2 interesting features that greatly enhance the powers of it. Let's have a close look at these.

Custom Page Types

First feature to mention is the 'Custom Page Types' (dubbed 'Doctype Support' in the manual, such a stupid name because it clashes with the well-known html-doctype. Using this mechanism one can define a xsl-stylesheet to use for the master page-html. This is important because I believe that the html that the default page-xsl produces is not very good. It is not accessible, not standard-compliant, fuzzy code is inserted and it uses a css-stylesheet which I don't like. In fact, I think code like this should always be custom-created.

Adding your own custom page type is very easy. Add something like below to livesite_customer_src/etc/conf/livesite_customer/pagetype-config.xml and rebuild the livesite-toolkit:

 

  <page-types> 

    <page-type id="yourid" default="false"> 

      <name>Any name</name> 

      <output> 

        <doctype/> 

        <method>html</method> 

        <content-type>text/html</content-type> 

        <omit-xml-declaration>true</omit-xml-declaration> 

      </output> 

      <allowed-layouts> 

        <layout refid="yourlayout"/> 

      </allowed-layouts> 

    </page-type> 

  </page-types> 

  <layouts> 

   <layout id="yourlayout"> 

      <name>Your Layout</name> 

      <stylesheet>nl/contentdokter/xsl/runtime/yourstyle.xsl</stylesheet> 

      <class>com.interwoven.livesite.layout.impl.DivLayout</class> 

    </layout> 

  </layouts> 

Now all you need to do is create your own xsl-stylesheet (under livesite_customer_src/etc/classes/nl/contentdokter/xsl/runtime/yourstyle.xsl). Two short tips on this:

1. use one of the xsl-files under httpdwebappscontent_centerWEB-INFclassescominterwovenxslruntime as a reference example

2. if your want to know how the source xml looks use this xsl-template:

        <xsl:template match="/"> 

                <xsl:copy-of select="."/> 

        </xsl:template> 

Note that you could even, if you really have the courage, to write your own Layout-class in java. That is, however, not easy and I don't really see a good use for it.

Custom Fixed Layouts

The second feature to mention is the 'Custom Fixed Layouts'. Using this, you stop using the original free-flow layout of SitePublisher and instead divide your page into fixed areas in which your end-users can drop the components. A crucial feature, really, because I don't think I will ever meet a content-editor that can be bothered with placing a component on a pixel-exact detail. Too time-consuming and error-prone.

If you want to try it out yourself, follow the chapter on this in the manual but, important, the given example has 1 or 2 annoying errors that will break it!

A perfect world

Now, in a perfect world one would be able to combine these two features:

1. create a fixed layout matching your sites styleguide

2. create a custom page-stylesheet with clean html and all custom css/js included

Well, that will work but it won't! So yes, you can overwrite the default 'fixed-layout' with your own, and thus define which page-xsl to use. But you can NOT create a second (or third) layout-entry in pagetype-config for a fixed layout.

Thus is due to the fact that the (internal) java-code does a string-match in the layout-id for 'fixed-layout'. It would have been so much better would they have added a boolean attribute to the layout-element like 'is-fixed-layout'. But they haven't.

Typical. :-(

To kick off the new year here is Tip #1 on Livesite. Here is come additional documentation and source code that can help you tackle Livesite:

1. The livesite java api-docs are hidden from plain view in a zip file under [iw-home]/install/livesite/docs. Not the most obvious place to look and further, not mentioned anywhere in the dev-manual.


2. The java source of the pre-installed livesite-components can be found here (thank you Karel for pointing this out to me) /iwmnt/iwadmin/main/spars/STAGING/foundation/toolkit_src/ls_runtime_src. They are a good source for example code if you need to write your own java-extension for a component.


3. The branch /default/main/component-guide contains a demo-website that shows all pre-installed live-components. This can come in handy if you are looking for more example code.


4. And if you still haven't got enough you could install a java-decompiler (f.i java.decompiler.free.fr works very well for me) and decompile the livesite-runtime.jar located under [iw-home]/httpd/webapps/content_center/WEB-INF/lib. This will be of use in one of my next tips.

Happy newyear!

I have never been a big fan of Livesite. Though the basic idea of combining open standards like Java en Xsl with a good looking GUI to render your content is charming, the Interwoven implementation of this idea has many issues. Well, let me call them "items to improve":

• the manual for developers is unreadable and almost useless;


• the installation and upgrade process is unnecessary complex. And apart from that, it messes up your existing installation with unwanted templates and workflows;


• the resulting (front-end) html is very messy and far from w3c-compliant or wai-accessible;


• all custom-configuration like components, layouts, etc. have a server-global-scope. It is impossible to limit the use of a specific component/layout to 1 branch only. Yes, your intranet news-component can be placed on a public-facing webpage!


• It is almost impossible to enforce a corporate webstyle. Editors are free to chose any available page-template for your public homepage.


• the preview, workflow & deploy mechanism does not follow the teamsite standards and good-practices. F.i. preview is not routed via the (flexible) iwproxy and uses the built-in tomcat. This has the side-effect that in order to install new java-code your must restart the servlet resulting in Teamsite downtime for other developers.


• an url-management-mechanism is missing. Search-engine-optimised-urls are out of your league.

The good news is that in the coming weeks I plan to post some tips on using and customising Livesite to your needs. I hope this will make your life with Livesite a little easier. Stay tuned.