Skip to main content
Version: Latest (4.53.1)

Alfresco System Information

Alfresco is an open-source enterprise content management (ECM) system designed to manage and share documents and content in an organization. It provides a platform for document management, collaboration, records management, workflow automation, and content governance.

System Specifications and Terminology​

Here are some key Alfresco terminology and concepts.

Repository​

A centralized storage system where content and metadata are stored. Alfresco Content Services acts as a repository for managing documents and other content.

Site​

A site is an area where content can be shared and a place to collaborate with other site members.

Document Library​

A site document library is where content such as documents, images, and videos is stored and managed.

Node​

Nodes are the fundamental units of content in Alfresco. Each document, folder, or piece of content is represented as a node in the repository.

Aspect​

An aspect in Alfresco is a way to extend the metadata associated with a node. Aspects can be added to nodes to provide additional characteristics or properties.

Record Management​

Alfresco Records Management (RM) is a module within Alfresco Content Services that provides capabilities for managing records and ensuring compliance with records management policies and regulations.

Alfresco APIs​

Alfresco provides a couple of APIs to interact with the system. The following APIs are used by the Xill4 application.

CMIS (Content Management Interoperability Services)​

A standard that enables different content management systems to communicate with each other. Alfresco supports CMIS, allowing interoperability with other CMIS-compliant systems. CMIS version 1.1, allowing to communicate using JSON, is supported by Alfresco version 4.2 and higher.

REST API​

The Alfresco REST API can be used to perform CRUD operations in Alfresco.

System Limitations​

Invalid Characters and Reserved Names​

The following characters are considered invalid and cannot be used in file or folder names in Alfresco:

  • \ (backslash)
  • / (forward slash)
  • : (colon)
  • * (asterisk)
  • ? (question mark)
  • " (double quotation marks)
  • < (less than)
  • > (greater than)
  • | (pipe)

Furthermore, file and folder names cannot end with a dot (.) and should not have leading or trailing spaces.

Migration Pitfalls​

The migration pitfalls are related to the system limitations and its features.

Case Sensitivity​

Alfresco, by default, is case-insensitive when it comes to folder and file names. This means that Alfresco treats uppercase and lowercase characters as the same. For example, "Document.docx" and "document.docx" would be considered the same file. When migrating from Alfresco to a system that does not support this, use the Remove Invalid Characters and Deduplicate accelerator to deduplicate folder and file names within the same folder.

Invalid File or Folder Names​

Use the Remove Invalid Characters and Deduplicate accelerator to clean up the folder and file names of characters that are not allowed.

Versions with Different Extensions​

Alfresco allows file versions to have different extensions. When migration to a system that does not support this, this will have to be dealt with.

Content with Multiple Parents​

Content in Alfresco can be located in multiple locations with the same identifier. As a result, when crawling these locations the document will be found multiple times. After the extraction, check if such documents exist in the Content Store (multiple parentIds) and deal with those accordingly in the migration.