Alfresco Labs 3 content repository talks Sharepoint protocol

Alfresco, maker of the Alfresco content repository, has announced the beta release of Alfresco Labs 3, an open source collaborative content management platform which can be used as an alternative to Microsoft SharePoint.

Alfresco Labs 3 has four main new components sitting atop of Alfresco's content repository; Alfresco Surf, Share, Repository API and SharePoint support. Surf is a framework for building custom web applications that work with the repository. Share is an AJAX oriented dashboard built, using Alfresco Surf, for working with the content repository. The Repository API allows REST based or JavaScript based access to the features within the Alfresco platform.

The SharePoint support makes the Alfresco repository visible to any SharePoint-capable client. The support, made possible when Microsoft released the SharePoint protocols this spring as part of its compliance with the European Commissions’ decision, lets users of Microsoft Office browse and find documents in the repository and check them in and out, with no additional plugins needed for Office.

Alfresco Labs 3 was formerly called the Alfresco Community Edition; the name change reflecting the more development oriented branch of Alfresco, as opposed to the stable enterprise release of Alfresco. According to CTO John Newton, "Our current plan is that the Enterprise version of Alfresco 3 will be available in mid-October."

(djwm)