AquaLogic Pathways is a collaborative information discovery and recovery system that provides personal and collective management of enterprise content, helping users more effectively locate, organize, and share information.
Users organize content by using tags, which are meaningful keywords that users create and apply to items and people. If you, the administrator, have defined auto-tags and are running the Auto-Tagging Engine, the system automatically tags items and people that fit the auto-tagging criteria.
Users can search for items and people by creating search queries that can include a combination of text, tags, and properties.
Pathways' system of activity-based ranking orders users’ search results; items and people ranked highest appear at the top of users’ results, followed by lower-ranked items and people. The rank of an item or person is determined by multiple ranking factors. You, the administrator, specify the relative weight that each ranking factor has on an item or person's rank. Activity-based ranking helps users easily determine which items and people they have collectively found to be useful.
Pathways is integrated with AquaLogic Interaction and AquaLogic Interaction Analytics, using their content aggregation, scanning, indexing, organizing, and identity management features. Optionally, Pathways can be integrated with AquaLogic Interaction Collaboration and AquaLogic Interaction Publisher, enabling users to access and tag their content.
Components of Pathways
Pathways is comprised of the following components:
Figure 2-1 Pathways Architecture
Overview of Pathways Components
The following table describes the components available in the Pathways installer. These components provide the functionality described in this guide. For information on installing these components, refer to the Installation and Upgrade Guide for AquaLogic Pathways.
Table 2-1 Pathways components
Component
Description
Pathways Web UI
The core set of Web UI components that comprise the Pathways application. Pathways application data is stored in the Pathways database. The Pathways Web UI component includes the following:
Pathways user interface: Includes Pathways portlets, Simple UI, Enhanced UI, and Pathways Administration interfaces.
ALUI Security: Secures the Pathways application and Pathways objects using the portal’s security system.
BEA ALI Search Service client: Integrates Pathways with the BEA ALI Search Service.
Image Service Files (Not pictured in architecture diagram)
The necessary images, styles, user interface controls, .js files, and online help for Pathways. This component is installed on the computer hosting the Image Service.
Overview of AquaLogic Interaction Components
Pathways is designed to integrate with the AquaLogic Interaction portal. When Pathways is installed, a number of administrative objects, activity rights, and the Pathways Administration Utility are created in the portal.
The following table describes the AquaLogic Interaction components that are used by Pathways.
Table 2-2 Summary of AquaLogic Components
Component
Description
Portal Database
The portal database stores portal objects, such as user and group configurations, document records, and administrative objects. The portal database does not store the documents available through your portal. Source documents are left in their original locations.
For information on setting up the portal database, see the Installation and Upgrade Guide for BEA AquaLogic Interaction.
Administrative Portal
The administrative portal handles portal setup, configuration, and content. It enables administrative functions, such as creating and managing portlets and other web services.
For information on installing the Administrative Portal, see the Installation and Upgrade Guide for BEA AquaLogic Interaction.
Portal
The portal serves end user portal pages and content. It enables end users to access portal content via My Pages, community pages, the Knowledge Directory, and search. The portal also enables some administrative actions, such as setting preferences on portlets or managing communities.
For information on installing the portal, see the Installation and Upgrade Guide for BEA AquaLogic Interaction.
Image Service
The Image Service serves static content used or created by portal components. It serves images and other static content for use by the AquaLogic User Interaction system.
Whenever you extend the base portal deployment to include additional components, such as portal servers or integration products, you may have to install additional Image Service files. For information on installing the Image Service files for those components, refer to the documentation included with the component software.
For information on installing the Image Service, see the Installation and Upgrade Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.
Search Service
The Search Service returns content that is indexed in the AquaLogic User Interaction system from the portal, Collaboration, and Publisher. The indexed content includes documents, portlets, communities, and users as well as many other AquaLogic User Interaction objects.
For information on installing the Search Service, see the Installation and Upgrade Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.
ALUI Directory Service
The ALUI Directory Service enables AquaLogic Interaction to act as an LDAP server, exposing the user, group, and profile data in portal database through an LDAP interface.This enables other ALUI products (and other third-party applications) to authenticate users against the portal database.
Automation Service
The Automation Service runs jobs and other automated portal tasks. You run jobs to perform tasks such as crawling documents into the Knowledge Directory, synchronizing groups and users with external authentication sources, and maintaining the search collection.
For information on installing the Automation Service, see the Installation and Upgrade Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.
Document Repository Service
The Document Repository Service stores content uploaded into the portal, Collaboration, or Publisher.
For information on installing the Document Repository Service, see the Installation and Upgrade Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.
AquaLogic Notification Service
The AquaLogic Notification Service sends e-mail notifications to users.
For information on installing the AquaLogic Notification Service, see the Installation and Upgrade Guide for AquaLogic Interaction.
