Deployment
The final stage in the communication process is to deliver the
information to the users that want it.
This stage itself breaks down into a number of sub-stages. The
content may need to be transferred from a staging or development
server to a final "live" or production server. This server may be
off-site.
The content will be published to final output format, and then
delivered by web or other transport mechanisms. Content indexing
and search facilities may also be implemented.
The site may be replicated to multiple servers, these servers
may be in a cluster with load balancing, or they may be distributed
across the globe. Output caching devices may be used to speed
delivery of content to end-users.
Immediacy delivers important functionality in several sections
of the deployment process. Certain elements such as load balancing
and "edge caching" depend primarily on server and hardware set up,
and are not part of the product. A number of companies exist that
provide specialist solutions in these areas.
Immediacy functions include:
1. Content output to final media
The content can be delivered in two modes - dynamically from the
data store, or from 'flat' published files. When run in dynamic
mode content is retrieved from the data repository and merged with
the appropriate output template on demand. This method ensures that
information offered is always the most up to date, and can support
additional flexibility in output tailoring.
On the other hand, flat file publishing reduces server load at
run time, and can be more search engine friendly. Immediacy allows
site administrators to choose either approach. Flat file publishing
is a single button process.
2. Publishing to production server
Immediacy allows for content to be developed on a single server,
which may also be used for final production. However it is more
common for the content to be created and approved on a development
or staging server. For final delivery it then needs to be
transferred to a live production server. This server may be
elsewhere on the network, or at a remote site. Immediacy has built
in an upload capability which supports transfer of all changes to
another Immediacy server, which may be sited anywhere globally. The
transfer process uses XML and HTTP protocols to synchronize the
data repositories - only changed content is uploaded. As part of
the upload, all related assets including images, PDFs and other
linked documents are automatically transferred to appropriate
directories on the server.
3. Search capability
Immediacy Server has a built-in search function and a default
search template is supplied. This allows a full text search to be
added to a site in just a few minutes. Other specialist search
engines may be plugged in as required.
4. Replication
As part of the upload to a production server Immediacy allows
for simultaneous synchronization with several named servers.