Technical Specifications

CourseLeaf is a content management system (CMS) targeted at the creation, publication, and maintenance of higher education academic catalogs. The solution is built on the PageLeaf CMS, with editing, workflow, and publication capability specifically designed for academic catalogs.  Internally, the core CourseLeaf application is a CGI binary written in C++ with no external dependencies. The core application includes a server-side JavaScript interpreter, where the majority of the functionality of the application resides. The organization of the JavaScript files is such that localizations or customizations are easily inserted into the environment and do not get overwritten with new releases.

Requirements

End-User

There are no requirements for the end user.

Author/Editor

• Supported Browsers
  -Internet Explorer 7, 8 (Windows)
  -FireFox 2, 3, 3.5 (Windows, Macintosh, Linux)
• Browser Additions
  –There are no plug-ins, Active-X controls, or Java environments required

Staging Server Requirements

CourseLeaf may be installed as either a hosted solution or a deployed solution. Both allow compatibility with a wide range of University operating systems, web servers, frameworks, and storage environments.

Hosted Solutions

Hosted solutions are housed at Leepfrog’s data centers, using redundant hardware and networking paths, with an off-site disaster recovery solution. Backups and system maintenance are performed by Leepfrog staff, and the solution software is automatically kept up-to date.  Hosted solutions frequently require an authentication proxy to be installed locally to enable single-sign on across the network.

Deployed Solution

CourseLeaf functions well in a virtualized environment, and cooperates well with most commonly available backup methods and software. CourseLeaf can work in a wide range of computing environments, including the following:

• Operating Systems
  -Windows 2000 and later
  -Linux RHEL/CentOS 4-5
  -(Other Linux or Unix variants are also available)
• Web Servers
  -IIS 5.x and above
  -Apache 2.x and above
• Frameworks/3rd-Party Components
  -[Default] None
  -PDF: Java 1.4.x or later Runtime Environment
  -Graphics: Licensed TrueType fonts
• Primary Storage
  -[Default] File system (flat files and embedded database)
  -SQL Server 2000 and later
  -MySQL
• Number of server CPUs
  -Not restricted

Publication Server Requirements

There are no run-time requirements for published output or for the publication server. By default, CourseLeaf generates a self-contained group of static HTML, CSS, and XML files. Once a catalog or portion of the catalog has completed the editorial workflow, the content is pushed to the publication server for delivery to the end user audience. The publication server may be set up on the same hardware and
operating system environment as the staging server, on a virtualized instance on the same hardware, or may exist on an entirely different machine.

The content generated by CourseLeaf integrates well with standard web tools, including log reporting, site search, support bookmarks, search engine optimization, and so on.

Certain optional features may require specific security configurations (e.g., academic progress customization, language detection, etc.). When using language detection for publishing multiple languages, Windows environments require a small IIS module to enable this feature. Depending on publication formats, there may be end user requirements to view elements of the catalog, such as a Flash player, PDF reader, or enabled JavaScript.

The staging server must be able to access the live server via directory mounts or network paths to push content to the publication server. This access may be delivered over a VPN. Alternatively, the staging server can produce a zip file of the published content which the production server may download and unpack on the production server. This requires no exposure of the production environment to the staging environment.