QP7.Framework Details

While we believe a picture is worth a thousand words and highly recommend you to take a look at QP7.Enteprise or other framework solutions through an online demo. Yet, to start with, here are about a thousand words of QP7.Framework details:

Content Editing

QP7.Framework provides graphical interfaces for the creation and management of content entry interfaces. Business analysts or system administrators create content schemas by adding fields, which are automatically reflected in content entry interfaces. Think of a power Excel user building web applications!

Once content entry interfaces are defined, fields, including WYSIWYG and file and image upload fields are populated with content. Advanced preview functionality allows content to be previewed in multiple presentation scenarios.

In addition to taxonomy-based editing, Quantum Art's OnScreen technology offers contextual editing capabilities and allows a user to navigate to a page that needs to be edited, and modify content directly on the page. This feature is unique to QP7.Framework and offers a revolutionary, yet simple and user-friendly approach to content editing.

Template Editing

QP7.Framework uses an object-oriented templating model, which provides superior flexibility and facilitates code reuse. The core presentation template and a library of template objects may be created using standard HTML-editing tools, such as Dreamweaver or even Notepad, for those that still do it the old-fashioned way. Each template may have multiple page types that inherit the core structure of the template or override it with their own page objects.

Objects within the software can be Publishing Containers (for direct database output), Publishing Forms (for direct database input), Macromedia Flash, JavaScript, Windows Media, and other. Objects are stored within the system as XML files and may be imported and exported from one installation of the QP7.Framework to another. This plug-and-play architecture significantly accelerates development and testing in launching a dynamic website.

Both templates and objects may be built in HTML, WML, XML or other mark-up languages. Depending on the configuration of the software, templates can also be written in ASP (VBScript), ASP.NET (VB.net), and PHP scripting languages. Point-and-click database connectivity is achieved through handy information screens that outline which fields or objects may be referenced in a particular template.

Multilingual Support

QP7.Framework is built for multilingual content editing environment, which allows multilingual contents to be presented and managed through several scenarios:

• Parallel fields in a source and target languages may be presented to a user for side-by-side comparison and modification or content.
  
• Localization on the "object level" provides an opportunity for passing a variable in the template for the correct objects to be invoked depending on the language preference. The approach involves creating two identical content types (and field schemas) and two objects for delivering the corresponding content to the interface. These can be tied together through UNION-type virtual contents.
  
• In addition, site replication may be used for multilingual site creation and maintenance through XML-based import/export.
  All interface menus are stored as a single XML file and localization of the interface involves translation and upload of the file. Double-byte and bi-directional support ensures that APAC and EMEA languages are presented in a consistent fashion.

Workflow

The new workflow engine within QP7.Framework (see Release Notes) provides a flexible workflow mechanism with an unlimited number of steps in each workflow and workflows are created through a simple graphical interface.

Different workflows can be created for different content types or individual articles (entries or database records). In the workflow interface, the administrator specifies a particular task, designates whether a user or a user group must be responsible for a given step in the workflow, and selects an appropriate user or user group for notifications. Once a task assigned to the user is performed, a notification is generated to the user responsible for the next task, and so on.

Version Control

QP7.Framework offers a advanced audit trail functionality and associated reporting capabilities. In addition, all previous versions of content are stored for future comparison or retrieval. Users can view and roll back to previous versions of content, given the required privileges are assigned. The audit trail information is presented through the same interface, allowing a user to see precisely the staged each content item went through to get to its current state.

Deployment

Interacting directly with a web server, QP7.Framework several deployment options: static site deployment is achieved through front-end indexing; on the dynamic side, an administrator can specify locations for live and stage versions of the site to create a staged production and development process. Directories can be virtually separated to allow for the production and development environments to reside on common hardware.

As a web-based product, no client-side software is required for deployment.

Installation and Configuration

QP7.Framework does not require a dedicated server, but a clean installation of the operating system is recommended for optimal performance. There are two servers on which QP7.Framework runs: the front-end and the backend server.

• Front-End Server. This may be a UNIX or a Linux or a Windows server running Apache or IIS. Please note that sites within QP7.Framework may be created with ASP and PHP, and published as flat HTML files. This provides you with a lot of flexibility in terms of implementation, but does require you to follow development guidelines and standards (i.e. a dynamic site created in ASP will not run on Apache out-of-the-box).
  
• Backend Server. QP7.Framework leverages MS SQL as its core database and the backend server must be running:
  Microsoft Windows® 2000 or 2003 with the latest SP
  Microsoft SQL 2000 server is recommended although, if unavailable, the Microsoft MSDE 2000 will suffice
  MDAC 2.8 or higher
  Once the software is installed or prior to the installation, IIS must be configured to the parameters clearly set in installation instructions.

The system is preconfigured to have an Administrator and an Administrators User Group, and provides direct connections to MS Active Directory or other compatible LDAP directories.

Number of users or user groups is unlimited and user roles are not limited to any preset permissions. A fine-grained security and permissions mechanism allows administrators to set up any type of permission levels to content or system functionality.

User authentication can be web-based or network level.

Want to know more?If you are interested in more information about QP7.Framework, please email us at info@decaresystems.ie. For a demo of the solution, please fill out the demo request form.