Technical Architecture

Hippo CMS Technical Architecture

Main components: Hippo Repository, Hippo CMS, Apache Cocoon

Hippo Repository

Searching and indexing

JSR-170

Hippo CMS

More information

Main components: Hippo Repository, Hippo CMS, Apache Cocoon

Hippo CMS consists of three main components:

Hippo Repository
Hippo CMS
And one or more Apache Cocoon instances

These three components form the basis for solutions based on Hippo CMS. They consist of several well known, stable, open source projects that together provide an open platform for use as an out-of-the-box CMS system while keeping all possible customisation open. The system's sourcecode is, being open source, freely available on the HippoCMS.org website.

The most important open source components that are integrated in the Hippo CMS solution are:

Apache Cocoon (Pipelined XML publishing framework)
Apache Slide (Content repository)
Apache Lucene (Search engine)
OpenSymphony Workflow (Workflow functionality)

Java Environment

Hippo CMS runs in a Java environment on any platform that supports it. It has been widely in use as a service on Linux distributions, Sun Solaris or Windows.

Hippo Repository

Hippo Repository is based on Apache Slide and stores and delivers content managed by Hippo CMS. It provides functionalities for fast storage and retrieval of content, binary- and meta information, users, permissions and workflow. Hippo Repository provides a transparant layer for access to different content stores, and has connectors for a wide range of databases. Examples are MySQL, MS SQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SAP and many others. Basic storage on filesystem is an option when query performance is not an issue. Hippo recommends using MySQL or PostgreSQL as a main storage database for their open architecture and stability.

Searching and indexing

Searching the repository is done by using DASL queries as described in the standard DASL specifications (see reference). Connectors for using an indexing engine like Apache Lucene are build-in. The Slide Java API allows usage of different indexing engines.

XML documents are automatically indexed, as well as PDF, Word documents and several other propriatery formats. Slide supports custom extractors that also allow indexing of images or any other kind of data, leaving as much room for extension as possible.

JSR-170

Hippo plans to fully integrate the JCR in Hippo Repository to support the Java API in the near future. Providing an open interface to all components within the Hippo range of products is a key strategy, and Hippo commits to supporting open community initiatives like the JCR. For more information, see http://incubator.apache.org/projects/jackrabbit.html
Hippo is a member of the Expert group for the JSR-283, "Content Repository for Java^TM Technology API Version 2.0".

Hippo CMS

Hippo CMS is an extendible Hippo Cocoon website that communicates with a Hippo repository over the WebDAV protocol. It can be used as a stand alone CMS, or together with existing databases.