Hello to those who have had the fortune of working in Aust. Gov orgs that use HPTrim as a document Records Management system!
My employer (Vic Gov funded utility) has some potential projects that I would like to propose Drupal for - but a key component of the use-case is that some of the content for the websites has only recently been moved into the records management system HP Trim.
I would like to retain the document source as Trim, so that internal updates to documents, versioning , archival (regulatory compliance) etc is all retained in Trim - but I need expose a small subset of these documents to an external Drupal site for public consumption.
Notes:
- The HP Trim setup is deep within the corporate network and not exposed outside the firewall at all
- The Drupal Websites need to be publically accessible (and current strategy is that we outsource the hosting of all public facing websites)
Has anyone has any experience in integrating a site to Trim?
There is a proprietary CMS by a mob called Elcom in Sydney called CommunityManager.Net that does apparently have a Trim connector module/process - and I intend to follow that up - but would prefer to use Drupal if I can.
I'm even considering internally batch rendering the latest version of docs to PDF, and then FTP or RSYNC to the external webserver periodically - but that sounds very sloppy... even for me.
Any thoughts or experience with Trim?
Comments
Haven't actually used TRIM,
Haven't actually used TRIM, but have looked into it for proposals. AFAIK there's no existing Drupal module for it, or any discussion on DDO. There's info on general TRIM integration at http://bit.ly/mNcmCR and Web Service manual at http://bit.ly/jjnpWT (needs registration).
The "simplest" approach we considered was for docs to be workflowed in TRIM, and "approved for web" versions to be stored in a repository that could then be sucked into Drupal automagically. How hard could it be? ;-)
How hard could it be?
Thanks Owen - LOL... Sounds like a direct quote from my General Manager :)
Hello
Hi,
We are a 750 man company with more then 60 full time resources on CMS (including drupal). I am not sure if we have a solutions but can surely come back to you after having a discussion with technical team. Can you send me all the details at gaurava@damcogroup.com?
Regards,
Gaurav
Gaurav Agarwal | Business Manager
Damco Solutions | T: +61 03 9005 7866
3/ 480 Collins Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000, Australia
E: gaurava@damcogroup.com | W: www.damcogroup.com
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Security is main hurdle
If Trim is not exposed in any public way, and your Drupal instance is expected to be hosted externally then you will probably face most of your problems overcoming that hurdle first.
Depending on how you can expose the data (might range from allowing public Trim access to a small public facing interface (API) to batch/manual synch) will largely determine what your options are for getting it into drupal.
Fairly sure the later version of Trim support CMIS, which could provide a direct connection option for you.
You might also be able to use an internal instance of Drupal and the services or deploy modules (or write some other small service/api probably custom) to push the content to the external instance of Drupal.
Otherwise, some form of rsync and batch processing could be the way to go.
I've also seen where the set of documents to be exposed is small enough that you just use a Drupal content type to hold the link to the document in Trim and manage security from that point of view.
--Ryan
Ryan Cross
Drupal Development Services
ProjectPier project management and collaboration software
Thanks Ryan, It does seem
Thanks Ryan,
It does seem that the latest version of Trim (v7 I think) has some updated options - if you enable the "WCM" Web content management components of TRIM (which it appears is where all the API goodness lives).
I'm chasing the TRIM vendor to try to get more of a handle on on what functionality is available from that end. Looks like their is a comprehensive API that was developed by the core developers of TRIM prior to it being bought out by HP. Feels like their might be one or two of those core dudes left in the bowels of HP somewhere who know how it all works. The rest of HP is just out to flog licences and consulting services - and the sales guys certainly dont have a clue about any of this.
I'll keep digging.
Skinning Cats
Ryan and Owen have both covered what I would have said from the Drupal side of things. Ryan is right, it all comes down to what is the simplest way to push/pull a document through the firewall. After that, the Drupal programming is 'easy'.
On the Elcom side of things, I recently had some experience migrating a largish site into WebManager.NET, and it wasn't pleasant. Elcom were late in delivery and the whole system was horribly inaccessible. And, while the user interface looked pretty, it was much more confusing than Drupal 6.
Very interested to hear how this goes though.
I have done some work with
I have done some work with TRIM's API (version 6 in particular) in .NET, but never got around to trying to make PHP talk directly to the COM API. (It should be possible to do this on Windows servers, if you're not up to writing any .NET.)
One possible (but awkward) way to do it would be to write a .NET (or PHP) shim that sits on your TRIM server and processes TRIM records that need to be published (on request or as a cron job). It would then talk to Drupal using the Services module to upload/manage/delete files. It's probably not the best way to do it, and would require a lot of custom logic to handle security & classification, but depending on the needs of your organisation it might just be enough. Furthermore, if you do it this way Drupal would treat it like any other file, so you would have the benefits of working with standard files at that end.
Same problem here
Hi Jason,
I am wandering the same thing. We use TRIM in our organisation and we are planning to go for DRUPAL with our next web development project. I have used TRIM WebDrawer in past (v6.2.4). I installed TRIM workgroup server on the public server in DMZ. I created a new document store on the public server (separate from a store on the internal network) that was dedicated to public records only. I created a new record type for public documents that was using the public document store in DMZ. When ever a "public" version of a document was created, it was stored on the public server in DMZ. This worked fine. Only problem was that if you ran a search on the WebDrawer you got a metadata from other records in main document store as well. When you then clicked on a document link, you would get an error message because the document was not allowed through the firewall. If you put the WebDrawer server behind a reverse proxy it could work for all documents. You could simply iframe the WebDrawer results on your DRUPAL site.
Anyway, could you let me know what solution you went for? I also work for AUSSIE government and I would be interested in your solution.
George.
CMIS module
Disclaimer: I haven't used Trim in over a decade and I've never tried using it with Drupal.
There is the CMIS module for Drupal that allows Drupal to talk to systems using the CMIS protocol. Trim supports CMIS [citation needed].
HPTRIM Drupal integration cases
Hi
I have been asked by several Organisations about exposing /integrating HP Records Manager ( HP TRIM) documents on Intranet site using Drupal. I thought to share the possible options and answer with wider Drupal users to benefit greater community.
HP Records Manager v8 ( HPRM - previously known as HPTRIM) has very rich Webclient that can provides 95% of HPRM working capabilities through a web browser. Almost all HPRM installations would residing eithin the Corporate network on Corporate LAN. Whereas Drupal 70% or more would be on hosted environment or outside Corporate network ( even if you install Drupal onsite at Client's premises the option explained will be applicable).
Option 1
To simplify this integration while maintaining high standards of HPRM security, you best create a HPRM Records reference i.e .TR5. Its a link file for HPRM format ( embedded URL). Your TRIM administrator would be knowing it how to create ( Right click on the records - Send To --> HPRM Reference. Administrator can save that link for all those documents which require exposing to Drupal site. These reference links ( when clicked) open the exact record document. These .TR5 can lauch the HPRM application ( either HPRM Client or HPRM Desktop subject to your configuration) for Intranet users.
You can also use record's full Web URI from the HPRM URL and create a Web link on your Drupal. When clicked it will open the record in HPRM web browser. Both these options expects the User to exist in HPRM application for access control.
Option 2 - without user being existing in HPRM
This option requires SharePoint 2010 - 2013 (foundation, standard or EE), that you expose HPRM records to the SharePoint Document Library and use the Document Link (annonymous access) through through Drupal.
Option 3- incase you wish to allow users to search documents
For this option you can leverage on HPRM rich Web Client and from within Drupal page you can redirect Drupal to HPRM WebClient. User will provide authentication (if not on corporate LAN). It can also be annonymous as Guest user however adhereing to HPRM security model.
HP RM integration with Drupal can be done by writing the integration connector however would require higher maintainence cost due to frequent patches from either Vendor.
Hope this help to users looking to expose documents on Drupal sites. For further discussion or if you would like to do a proof of concept, please feel free to contact me at Anbul Technologies www.anbultechnologies.com
Cheers,
Harry