Scopes For The Win: The Importance of Proper Customization Isolation for Successful Projects

I've said it before, FlowerDocs is an awesome NoSQL content repository, ideally suited for ECM projects. If you don't know FlowerDocs, you can read more about it on our website. One aspect I particularly appreciate about FlowerDocs is the notion of "scope."

ECM repositories typically require configurations, customizations, and extensions to meet specific business needs. Some platforms allow very simple configurations such as content models and forms. Others provide event handlers or triggers for automation and intelligence. Still, others offer a comprehensive development framework for deep customization, covering both UI and backend development.

The right choice depends heavily on the organization's needs and scale. Today, my goal isn't to debate low-code versus no-code versus full-framework development. Instead, I want to focus on how these configurations and customizations are packaged, deployed, and targeted.

Some platforms rely on in-app forms and screens, configured directly in the runtime environment. Others offer robust exchange formats, allowing secure and repeatable deployments across multiple environments. While quick, in-app form-based configurations might be suitable for minor customizations, they quickly become problematic as projects grow:

• It takes significant time to reproduce the same configuration repeatedly.
• It introduces risks of discrepancies between environments, such as differences between production and testing.
  

Using configuration and extension packages is a far more robust approach. It enables better scalability, allows teams to isolate configurations, facilitates better governance, and enhances mutualization within your platform. In fact, I'd argue it's essential for project success. Additionally, it supports compliance efforts. When undergoing certifications like SOC2 or PCI/DSS, your application's artifacts must be properly versioned and archived. If your business application's configuration consists of numerous small manual adjustments stored within the application's database, compliance becomes challenging. Being able to snapshot and isolate these configurations is clearly the better way to go.

FlowerDocs elegantly addresses both scenarios, supporting agile small deployments as well as larger projects. It introduces the concept of Scope, defining clearly:

• Configurations, including content models deployed in dedicated indexes, UI customizations, handlers and hooks registrations and activation (themselves deployed as Jars on the platform),
• Groups of users (such as mapping to an LDAP organizational unit).
• Permitted languages.

Scopes can be configured manually and then exported as a structured hierarchy of folders, or created immediately in open formats (XML and properties files) and packaged into a Zip file. A CLI tool is then used to deploy these configurations on specific instances.

Flowerdocs customers and partners leverage Scopes to:

• Target multiple departments and use cases through a single deployment.
• Implement robust data isolation across subsidiaries in large organizations using a single, streamlined deployment.
• Build repeatable "solutions" that capture weeks of work and deliver immediate, substantial vertical value.
• Strategically isolate internal processes from external-facing processes.
• Effectively mutualize efforts and streamline platform management.

Proper scope management thus becomes an integral part of ensuring project success.

You can learn more about Flowerdocs technical concepts here.