The document provides an overview of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and its process for selecting a web content management system (WCMS). ESO operates astronomical telescopes and has over 700 staff across sites in Europe and Chile. It underwent a multi-year process to select a WCMS, which included defining requirements, evaluating candidate systems, customizing prototypes, and user testing. Key requirements included usability, media management, user permissions, and integration with ESO applications and databases. The selection process resulted in a recommendation for a new WCMS platform to improve ESO's web operations and content delivery.

1. @ ESO
WCMS Selection and Testing Experiences
Rein Warmels, Gabriele Zech
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2. @ ESO
ESO Overview
ESO, the European Southern Observatory, builds and operates a
suite of the world's most advanced ground-based astronomical
telescopes
➤ Foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and
the world’s most productive astronomical observatory.
➤ Supported by Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark,
Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
➤ Headquarters in Garching/Munich. Observatories in Chile: Paranal,
La Silla, Chajnantor and ???
➤ Budget 135 MEuro per year.
➤ Personnel ~ 700 Staff (International and Local)
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Sites and Locations
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Major Activities
1. Operations: Running the Observatories
➤ Service Observing: 4++ Telescopes, 16++ Instruments, 365 Nights
per year
➤ Telescopes and Instruments: Maintenance, Data Quality Control,
Calibration, Instrument Monitoring, Upgrades
➤ User Support: In Garching and at the Observatories; 1800 Proposals
per year; 1000 Observing Runs
➤ Archive Operations - Virtual Observatory: Currently 65 TBytes,
growth rate 15 TBytes per year, after 2013 150 TBytes per year,
10.000 data requests per year
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Major Activities
2. Developments
➤ Telescopes and Dome Structures, Control Systems, Electronics,
Optical Systems
➤ Instrumentation (optical, infrared) , Detectors and Controllers, Laser
Guide Stars, Cryo-Vacuum, Integration
➤ Software Telescope Control, Data Acquisition, Data Calibration, Data
Reduction, Database Applications, Archive, Virtual Observatory
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Major Activities
3. Science
➤ Planetary Research
➤ Stellar Structure and Evolution
➤ Stellar Populations
➤ Evolution of Galaxies and the ISM
➤ Cosmology and Early Universe
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Users Communities
➤ Public Users
Science Public
Press and Media, General Public, Students/Teachers, Future Staff,
Industry, Vendors, Policy Makers
➤ Scientists
Facilities: Paranal, La Silla, Future (e.g. ALMA, ELT), Proposal
Submission, Post Observing Processing (Quality Control, Archive),
Observing Tools, Science Events (Symposia, Talks)
➤ ESO Staff
Intranet
Operations, Information for ESO Staff (Human Resources, IT, Safety),
Administrative Processes, Internal Communication, Divisional and
Departmental Information, Social Activities
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The ESO Web: Indispensable for doing Science
➤ Services and Support for scientists and engineers; disseminating of
information: Operations and Development
➤ Communication for documents, images, Critical for coordination in
particular in areas of science and archive operations: Science
➤ Progress on Future Facilities: Science, Politics
➤ Comprehensive information for the Public: Visibility, Politics
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ESO Web Operations (1)
➤ Authoring/Applications CONSISTENCY
➮ Public Affairs: Public Area (Press Releases, Education, General
Information)
➮ Divisions and Departments
Garching: ~ 30 staff members
Chile: ~ 20 staff members
➤ Operations/Content Management MAINTAINABILITY
➮ IT Department: Maintenance of Web HW/SW Infrastructure,
Technical Support (2 Staff, Helpdesk)
➮ Public Affairs: Media Archive
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ESO Web Operations (2)
Statistics (www.eso.org only):
➤ 1 Gbps incoming, 300 Mbps outgoing; Backbone 10 Gbps
➤ 20+ servers, mostly Dell Blades, VMware virtual servers
➤ 50+ Web sites
➤ ~ 80 IP addresses for web related servers
➤ Pages: ~ 115 000 HTML pages; ~ 13.000 pdf files
➤ Visits: ~ 5.000.000 hits/month; ~ 5.000.000 page views/month
➤ Transfer > 1 PBytes (excl. Science Archive)
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Why a CMS Improvement Potential
➤ Look and Feel ➤ Administration
– Consistency – Central administration
– Central control (Backup/Restore, user
management, server
control…)
➤ Content – Rights and permissions
– Content creation
➤ Future Web
– Syndication, Synergies
– Personalised pages
– Workflow
– Metadata management
– Structure and metadata – Groupware and community
– State-of-the-art (“Web 2.0”)
technologies and platforms
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WCMS Selection Process
1. WCMS Candidate Systems (PHP, Java, Open Source)
2. ESO Web Content Analysis
3. Collection and Definition of Requirements
4. Architecture Issues
5. Construction of Use Cases, Priorities
6. Selection of Candidate Systems: Presentation, Proof of Concept and
Testing
7. Evaluation and Recommendation
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1. Candidate Systems: The Big Survey
Matrix of Candidate systems:
Selection:
Java: Day CQ5, FirstSpirit, FatWire
PHP: Typo3, ContentServ
Open Source: Alfresco
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2. ESO Web Content Analysis
• Simple HTML (old)
• Small CMS solutions
• Proprietary solutions
• PHP based pages
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3. Collection of ESO Requirements
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Top Ten Requirements (1)
1. It must be easy to use for non technical staff. Editor’s interfaces
must be configurable for different needs and levels of expertise.
2. It must come with or support a powerful Media Management
System that integrates smoothly with the editor’s interface and
can also be used as a media archive;
3. It must provide a powerful user management based on roles; It
has to be able to take advantage of ESO’s existing User
Database and Single Sign On mechanism.
4. It must support multi-level, customisable navigation with flexible
connection points;
5. For ESO’s different sites, it needs a Multi-Site Manager with
support of Microsites;
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Top Ten Requirements (2)
6. Integrated Search Engine, taking rights and permissions into
account and being able to search in images and metadata, would
7. It must have a powerful forms editor that can be used to create
queries to external databases (Archive);
8. As ESO is running a lot of different web applications, strong
integrative orientation of the CMS is required (supporting
connections to Navision, Sybase databases, Science User Portal)
9. It must support standard and open interfaces to allow for easy
extension, customisation and integration of ESO’s current and
future web applications; Compatibility with standard Portal
solutions should be given.
10. Statistics and Reports for backend operations and visitors’ habits
have to be available.
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4. Architecture Issues
➤ Review of the ESO Infrastructure
➤ Suggestion for a revised modular web architecture for ESO
(external consultant from Fraunhofer IAO)
➤ After that: Selection of suitable software products to support the
new architecture
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5. Use Cases (1)
Based on the collected requirements Use Cases were created:
• General Publishing Services / Editor's View
• Media Publishing
• Business Analyst
• Visitors’s View
• Template Development
• Administration and Configuration
• System Features
• Migration
• Customisation and Extension
• Integration
• Interoperability, Syndication
• Support and Documentation
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5. Use Cases (2)
1. First Priority Use Cases
➤ Connection to CAS and the User Database; Integration with a dynamic
JSP Web application
➤ Search and Find, permissions aware
➤ Editor's acceptance: Demos and tests with casual and (power) users
2. Second Priority Use Cases
➤ In addition to the Use Cases listed above, this section contains use
cases that are important for the ESO Web and hence for the evaluation
of the system.
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6. Proof of Concept and Testing
1. Presentations (vendors, including Day)
2. Installation of systems on two test servers (ESO, vendors)
3. Customisation and implementation of ESO Look and Feel (vendors)
4. Implementation of Use Cases (vendors)
5. Presentations and Demonstrations; Discussions (ESO Staff, vendors)
6. User Tests Phase: Based on Use Cases - Reporting (ESO)
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7. Evaluation and Recommendation
After N years of work the recommendation was:
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