Content repositories are used to create, manage, edit, and publish the information content of websites, manuals, electronic documents, multi-media files, and other computer files. Content repositories also store metadata about the content, including version history, author, dates, security policies, and relationships. The JCR API, otherwise known as the Content Repository API for Java, provides a standard platform API for interacting with content repositories, including the ability to navigate, version, search, and listen for changes.

The JBoss DNA open source project was launched earlier this year as a unified repository system based on JCR with support for clustering, distribution, and federation of content information from a variety of back-end systems. To client applications, JBoss DNA looks and behaves like a regular JCR repository. But under the covers, JBoss DNA gets its content by federating multiple back-end systems (like databases, services, other repositories, etc.), allowing those systems to continue "owning" the information while ensuring the unified repository stays up-to-date and in sync. JBoss DNA also analyzes the content you put into the repository and sequences it to extract additional information you can use more effectively.

The presentation will introduce the JCR API and will provide some examples about how JCR and content repositories are being used today. The second part of the presentation will then talk about the JBoss DNA project, its features, and what distinguishes JBoss DNA from other JCR repository implementations.

Randall Hauch has been working with metadata and repositories for most of his career. He is the project lead for JBoss DNA and a Principal Software Engineer at JBoss, a division of Red Hat. Prior to that, Randall was an architect and developer at Revelytix, a semantic technology startup, and chief architect at MetaMatrix. And before that, Randall worked in a virtual product development and engineering group at Boeing.