A bunch of new features focused on helping companies manage their web presence have been introduced in Version 3.3. A list of these is as follows:
Alfresco Web Editor: In-context editing to Alfresco (non-AVM) stored content has been introduced. This will allow content authors to edit content items stored within an Alfresco repository directly from the web page. Alfresco 3.3 also provides the Web Editor Framework, a JavaScript client-side framework, rendering a toolbar, and associated controls.
Transfer Service API: Developers can build solutions that transfer content between Alfresco repositories (non-AVM) using the Transfer Service API. This is useful to WCM architectures where Alfresco provides both authoring and delivery tier components and allows rich-content structures and relationships to be maintained between Alfresco environments.
Rendition API: The Rendition API will allow developers to build solutions for easily repurposing content for the Web. FreeMarker and XSLT templates can also be used as part of the Rendition API.
WCM deployment: The Alfresco Deployment Receiver is configured as sub-system and a new Data Dictionary folder called Web Deployed is configured to default as the deployment target. AVM to DM-WCM deployment facilities have been enhanced to add an additional deployment target. This additional deployment receiver allows WCM content that is authored and stored within the AVM to be deployed to local and remote Alfresco repositories (Alfresco DM).
The Alfresco Web Editor (AWE) is a Spring Surf-based web application that utilizes the Forms Service to provide in-context editing capabilities to Alfresco repository content (non-AVM). Alfresco 3.3 also introduces the Web Editor Framework (WEF), which is a client-side JavaScript framework that is a dependency of the AWE.
With the initial release, the AWE will support JavaServer Pages (JSP)-based websites by providing a tag library. Additional languages will be supported in future releases with FreeMarker and PHP being on top of the list. The tags have been designed for easy implementation so that a developer can enable the AWE with minimal effort, and without effecting the CSS layout and design of the site.
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The simplest and quickest way to deploy AWE is to use the prebuilt WAR (awe.war) file and deploy it in the same application server instance of your web application. Being a Spring Surf-based application, AWE does not have to be deployed in the same application server instance as the Alfresco repository. However, this section presumes that it is.