Third-Party Components

The Content Engine depends on the following third-party components:

Java Development Kit (JDK)

This provides the Java runtime and development environment required by J2EE application servers.

Database

Used to store publication content, structure and so on.

J2EE Java application server

The Content Engine is a JEE web application, and therefore runs inside a JEE application server. escenic-admin, Web Studio and all Escenic publications are also JEE applications and therefore also run within a JEE application server.

Web server (optional)

J2EE applications have built-in web servers that can be used for test and development purposes. For large-scale production installations, however, a separate web server may be advisable.

JDBC (Java DataBase Connectivity) driver

This is required to connect the Content Engine to the database.

Apache Ant

This is a Java-based build tool that is used by the Content Engine assembly tool.

Apache Solr

This is a Java-based search engine. It is used to provide search functionality both in web publications and in Content Studio. Unlike the other third-party components listed here, Solr is actually installed with the Content Engine.

Caching Server (optional)

A caching server such as Squid or Varnish can greatly improve the performance of heavily-loaded sites by caching frequently requested pages and sending the cached copies on request unless the original pages have been updated.

Load Balancing Server (optional)

If your site has multiple web hosts, then you may also want to install a load-balancing server to distribute requests evenly between them.

memcached (optional)

If your site has multiple web hosts, then you can improve caching efficiency by using this open source distributed cache manager to provide a shared cache for all your hosts.

In principle, the Content Engine can work with many different third-party components. In Required Supporting Software, however, you will find the list of officially supported software. The current version of the Content Engine has been tested with these components and is known to work satisfactorily.