Content Federation Services for Image Services combines the capabilities of Image Services systems and Content Platform Engine servers. Content Federation Services for Image Services enables FileNet® P8 applications and servers to communicate and work together with Image Manager applications and servers. You can initiate work through the applications of either system. For example, you can capture documents through FileNet P8 Platform applications, store them in Image Services, and view them with other FileNet P8 applications. Or you can capture documents in Image Services, send the cataloging information to Content Platform Engine, and view the documents through an Image Manager viewer such as IDM Desktop or from FileNet P8 Platform applications.
Content Federation Services for Image Services supports bidirectional federation of data and properties between Content Platform Engine and FileNet Image Services. Bidirectional federation is also known as bidirectional replication. Documents and annotations that are acquired and stored in FileNet Image Services can be updated and deleted on both Content Platform Engine and FileNet Image Services. In addition, documents and annotations that are acquired by Content Engine can be stored in Content Platform Engine or FileNet Image Services and updated from either system. By using Content Federation Services for Image Services:
- Documents that are acquired by FileNet Image Services and stored in Image Services can be cataloged on both Content Platform Engine and FileNet Image Services or only on Content Platform Engine.
- Documents that are acquired by Content Platform Engine can be cataloged on both Content Platform Engine and FileNet Image Services or only on Content Platform Engine.
- Catalog updates from either Content Platform Engine or FileNet Image Services will be propagated to the other system.
- Documents that are deleted from either Content Platform Engine or FileNet Image Services will also be deleted from the other system. (This behavior is the same as in past Content Federation Services for FileNet Image Services releases).
- Annotations to federated documents can be added, updated, or deleted from either Content Platform Engine or FileNet Image Services, and the changes are propagated to both systems.
In addition to the bidirectional replication features listed above, the following applies to a Content Federation Services for Image Services system:
- You have direct access to existing Image Services documents from applications built on the FileNet P8 Platform. This offers many benefits, including use of the cataloging capabilities provided by FileNet P8 Content Manager, access to Image Services documents within Content Platform Engine workflow applications, and the use of IBM® IBM Enterprise Records to manage the lifecycle of Image Services documents.
- Existing documents remain in Image Services; there is no need to export, convert, or modify them. This is a cost benefit and ensures that document integrity is maintained.
- You have use of all existing applications that enter documents into Image Services systems; that is, HPII, MRII, COLD II, DW SAP, Capture, and independent software vendor applications. There is no need to incur the cost of rewriting these applications to take advantage of the FileNet P8 capabilities.
- You can use Image Services to store new Content Platform Engine documents. This provides the added benefit of leveraging investments in Image Services storage capacity and supports storing Content Platform Engine content on optical media (WORM or rewritable), MSAR, and tape silos (through a FileNet Professional Services offering).
- You have a mechanism for cataloging Image Services documents in Content Platform Engine. The connections between Content Platform Engine and Image Services systems tolerate network outages and system restarts on either side of the connection.
- You have support for full text search of text-based Image Services documents in Content Platform Engine. If the Content Platform Engine object store is configured for full text search, also known as content based retrieval (CBR), the federated document content can be searched in the same way as native Content Platform Engine document content.