CMIS Content Management Interoperability Services of Service of interaction at content management

CMIS describes and supports a subject-oriented data model of content management. As a part of the basic services working with a data model, several protocols of communication for these services including: SOAP and REST/Atom. It is supposed that the applications created on the basis of this standard should guarantee interaction of the users and applications sharing different storages of content.

Briefly about the specification

The specification of the standard contains interface description:

• it is intended for work with the existing storages, allowing to create and improve the applications supporting simultaneous operation with a set of storages — making available content which is already available;
• provides abstraction of web services and content from storages, implementing independent content management;
• provides basic web services and Web 2.0 interface that will simplify application development;
• implements a krossplatformny development environment;
• supports the development of composite applications and applications aggregating data from a number of sources in the uniform tool business or IT analysts
• promotes participation of bigger number of independent software developers.

The CMIS interface is intended for placement in an upper layer of the existing content management systems (CMS) and their program interfaces.

What will be implemented by the standard

CMIS assumes existence of services which will allow:

• reveal object types, other information of a repository, data on additional opportunities specific a repository;
• creation, change, removal of objects;
• distribution of documents by several folders;
• implement navigation and wiring on a folder hierarchy in a repository;
• provide version control of documents and access to the version history;
• search in any repository with the subsequent selection of objects, including full-text search.

What is not assumed by the standard

CMIS does not provide services of administration or configuring of repositories from ECM-applications.

CMIS does not affect setup of parameters of security.

The standard does not provide mechanisms of instructions to applications what transactions the user can execute over an object in a repository using the CMIS interfaces, or in a different way. Behind a repository the right to solve what actions to consider permitted on the basis of internal model of authorization is left.

It is a little history

Formal works on the CMIS standard are begun after the invitation of Technical committee OASIS, on October 6, 2008.

The basis was necessary the project of version 0.5 from corporations EMC, IBM, and Microsoft.

On September 10, 2008 the companies announced about "jointly the developed specification which uses the web services and Web 2.0 interfaces allowing applications to interact with several repositories of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) from different suppliers", with the statement for intention to provide specifications of the standard to OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) for promotion by means of development process of standards.

Afterwards Alfresco, Open Text, SAP, Day Software and Oracle joined development. All of them jointly offered the CMIS standard and the first technical specification. The request for the standard was registered by OASIS and submitted in open access for public discussion.

As of October 30, 2009 technical work purchased broad support. Interest in the project was stated by many companies, among them: Adobe, Adullact, AIIM, Alfresco, Amdocs, Anakeen, ASG Software Solutions, Booz Allen Hamilton, Capgemini, Citytech, Content Technologies, Day Software, dotCMS, Ektron, EMC, ESoCE-NET, Exalead, FatWire, Fidelity, Flatirons, fme AG, Genus Technologies, Greenbytes GmbH, Harris, IBM, KnowledgeTree, Lexmark, Liferay, Magnolia, Mekon, Microsoft, Nuxeo, Open Text, Oracle, Pearson, Quark, RSD, SAP, Saperion, Structured Software Systems (3SL), Sun Microsystems, Tanner AG, TIBCO Software, Vamosa, Vignette.