Using HTTP to Access CMS Components

The Content Manager, the Template Engine, the Search Server, the GUI, and the Portal Manager have a HTTP interface used for communicating with other components and applications. The CMS components transfer and receive data via the HTTP interface using HTTP.

An HTTP server is addressed via an URL which the server evaluates. A browser, e. g., connects to a webserver when a URL is entered in order to request the document corresponding to the URL.

Often, not only the path to the document is transferred to an HTTP server by means of the URL, but also a set of parameters. In requests to search engines in particular, the path mainly consists of parameters. A search engine does not return a static document as a response to a search request, but a document which it has created using the parameters in the URL.

The Content Manager uses this mechanism called URL-encoding to be able to make various data available to other components. In this way, e.g. the user interface with the following URL can transfer a request document to the NPS Content Manager using the POST command:

    http://my.cm.server/xml

The Content Manager recognizes that the actual request is directed to its XML interface by the /xml part of the URL. It consequently expects the request as an XML document in the body of the request sent. An application or a CMS component can therefore address the XML interface of another CMS component via the /xml part of the URL.