Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) is an
open standard
An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a common prerequisite that open standards use an open license that provides for extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in their development due to ...
that allows different
content management systems
A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content (content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...
to inter-operate over the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
. Specifically, CMIS defines an
abstraction layer
In computing, an abstraction layer or abstraction level is a way of hiding the working details of a subsystem. Examples of software models that use layers of abstraction include the OSI model for network protocols, OpenGL, and other graphics libra ...
web
Web most often refers to:
* Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal
* World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system
Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to:
Computing
* WEB, a literate programming system created by ...
protocols
Protocol may refer to:
Sociology and politics
* Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states
* Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state
* Etiquette, a code of personal behavior
Science and technology
...
.
Concept
CMIS defines a
domain model
In software engineering, a domain model is a conceptual model of the domain (software engineering), domain that incorporates both behavior and data.Fowler, Martin. "P of EAA - Domain Model"/ref> In ontology engineering, a domain model is a Knowl ...
plus bindings that can be used by applications to manipulate content stored in a repository.
CMIS provides a common data model covering typed files and folders with generic properties that can be set or read. There is a set of services for adding and retrieving documents ('objects'). There may be an access control system, a checkout and version control facility, and the ability to define generic relations. Three protocol bindings are defined, one using
WSDL
The Web Services Description Language (WSDL ) is an XML-based interface description language that is used for describing the functionality offered by a web service. The acronym is also used for any specific WSDL description of a web service (also ...
and
SOAP
Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...
, another using AtomPub, and a last browser-friendly one using
JSON
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation, pronounced or ) is an open standard file format and electronic data interchange, data interchange format that uses Human-readable medium and data, human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consi ...
. The model is based on common architectures of document management systems.
The CMIS specification provides an API that is programming language-agnostic, as
REST
REST (Representational State Transfer) is a software architectural style that was created to describe the design and guide the development of the architecture for the World Wide Web. REST defines a set of constraints for how the architecture of ...
and
SOAP
Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...
are implemented in many languages.
Reasoning
Many of the original contributors to the specification believed
a simplified and standardized way to access unstructured content across all vendors would increase the adoption of ECM products, but only if the standard could remain compatible with existing deployed systems, much the way that ODBC
Open Database Connectivity
In computing, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. An ...
did for the relational database market in the 1990s.
History
The initial work of developing the momentum and use cases that led to the CMIS proposal was conducted by the iECM Initiative
sponsored by AIIM. This ongoing project to foster interoperability among ECM systems is supported by the collaborative efforts of governmental, commercial, vendor, and consulting organizations.
Although initiated by AIIM, CMIS is now administered by
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
Oracle
An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination.
Descript ...
, and SAP. The standard is available for public comment at OASIS.
OASIS approved CMIS as an OASIS Specification on May 1, 2010. CMIS 1.1 has been approved as an OASIS specification on December 12, 2012.
The specification is currently approved as
OASIS
In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment
There are public discussion lists.
The TC was closed on May 9, 2017, and is no longer active.
Criticism
There is some discussion on the name of CMIS. Some blogs and authors say that it should be named "DMIS", with D for Document since it is more targeted on ECM.
From the CMIS Specification 1.1, page:Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) Version 1.1 " ..this data model does not cover all the concepts that a full-function ECM repository ..transient entities (such as programming interface objects), administrative entities (such as user profiles), and extended concepts (such as compound or virtual document, work flow and business process, event and subscription) are not included."
List of implementations
CMIS Servers
A CMIS server stores content, and offers access via the CMIS protocol. Some servers also allow access via other protocols.
Capabilities
Each CMIS server declares a set of capabilities. For instance, servers that allow documents to be filed in different places declare the capability "Multifiling". This mechanism allows clients to interact differently with servers that support or don't support a particular operation.
Some server products allow certain capabilities to be disabled or enabled by configuration. the table below lists maximum capabilities.
Server libraries
A CMIS server library allows developers to create CMIS server applications.
Client applications
A CMIS client application typically allows users to browse, read and modify content.
Books and publications
* ''Alfresco CMIS'', by Martin Bergljung, March 2014. ''Packt Publishing''
* ''OpenCMIS Server Development Guide 2nd Edition'', October 2014, at ''Github' * ''CMIS and Apache Chemistry in Action'', July 2013, by Florian Müller, Jay Brown, and Jeff Potts. ''Manning Publications'',
* ''Implementing a Case Management Modeling and Notation (CMMN) System using a Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) compliant repository'', by Mike A. Marin and Jay A. Brown, April 27, 2015, at ''arXiv.org'
WebDAV
WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is a set of extensions to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which allows user agents to collaboratively author contents ''directly'' in an HTTP web server by providing facilities for conc ...