Teamsite 4.5 vs. 5

Can anyone tell me if there are any major differences between version 4.5 and 5 that might affect a build?
I have been through the process in 4.5 and have just signed on for another project that uses 5.

Thanks.

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tvaughan

Is it TS 5.0.x or 5.5.x you're interested in?

5.5.x has the highly annoying characteristic of changing the returned paths via a lot of the iwpt_**** commands from /iwmnt/default. . . . to /.iwmnt/default. . . .

So you'd need to do a lot of little one-off coding snippets to catch the extra period, unless you had the foresight to not pattern match on the mount point in many of your scripts ;-)

Tom

jdoris

I believe they're using 5.0.
That problem you mention sounds very typical of an Interwven annoyance. I know 4.5 had it;s fair share of em.

I guess I'm referring more to the basic structure of the templates: IPLs, DCTs, etc. Still using the Perl/XML foundation?

Any improvements to the ghastly OpenDeploy product since 4.5 ?

Migrateduser

I second Tom's opinion of how annoying it is that suddenly that little dot has appeared preceeding the mount in directory paths.

Dave Smith
Sr. Software Engineer
Nike, Inc.
(503) 671-4238
DavidH.Smith@nike.com

Adam Stoller

I guess I'm referring more to the basic structure of the templates: IPLs, DCTs, etc. Still using the Perl/XML foundation?

IPLs are perl scripts and 5.5.2 is still using Perl 5.005_03 (will probably be upgraded in a not-too-distant release)

DCTs in 5.5.2 allow for the use of FormAPI - an extension of JavaScript - to allow you to do much more dynamic configuration of the fields within a DCT.

DCRs are, by default, written out all in one line - but there is an iw.cfg option in 5.5.2 that allows you to get the "pretty" formatting of the content within the DCR file (this is the actual data - not its presentation)

Perl/XML are still present and largely the basis of most simple customizations within the products - however there is also OpenAPI and Content Services SDK - which are Java interfaces to interacting with various aspects of TeamSite.

Any improvements to the ghastly OpenDeploy product since 4.5 ?

I'd like to think so. OpenDeploy 5.5.1 is much improved in my opinion (though I'm certainly a bit biased on the subject).

I'd really recommend that you take a look at the Interwoven Education offerings - there were some "upgrade" courses being offered (don't remember if they're still be offered right now and my web-surfing ability is somewhat hampered by a 31 Kbps dial-up connection presently) - and beyond that I'd take a look at both other content on this (DevNet) site and Interwoven's WWW site.

--fish
(Interwoven Information Guy)

tvaughan

I can't remember TS 4.5.1, but I remember OD 4.5, and the model between OD 4.5. and OD 5.x is vastly different.

Basically, you should consider OD 4.5 a separate product from OD 5.x-- that's how different they are. Just for starters, OD 5 comes in two flavors-- base & receiver. A base can send and receive, and a receiver can just receive.

The configuration files for OD 5.x are completely different (and better) than the OD 4.5 configurations. You should plan for a lot of work to upgrade from 4.5 to 5 (but it's worth it).

Some last thoughts:
1) You can do the OD upgrade independent of a TS upgrade, which lets you break things off in to smaller chunks. You can run OD 4.5 and OD 5.x on the same box, so that helps in the conversion of an existing installation.
2) You should upgrade all the way to OD 5.5 if you can because OD 5.0 was kinda half-baked.
3) Make sure you understand the version dependencies and OS dependencies when planning it out.

Good luck,
Tom

jdoris

Thanks for the helpful info, all.
Just to clarify, this project I'm about to undertake is a completely different inplementation at a different company. There will be no upgrading -- I just wanted to know for myself what new things I need to learn to work in 5.0 in addition to what I've learned from working in 4.5.1

Here's a question:
Can we use OD 5.5 on a TS 5.0 installation ?

Thanks again.

JD

Edited by jdoris on 11/01/02 01:03 PM (server time).