How to configure eMPower and ColdFusion

Thank you for downloading eMPower, Ektron’s full featured content management solution for Macromedia ColdFusion environments. The following information can be used to help you determine the best way to set up eMPower in your configuration. Below are possible configurations you may have and you can derive other configurations from them. The configuration Ektron recommends is eMPower being a physical folder under your site or sub folder that will have content managed by eMPower.

Terminology

The following defines the terminology used in this paper.

Web Root. This is the default root of your web server. For IIS, it is typically the WWWROOT directory or for apache, it is typically the HTDOCS directory.

Site Root. This is the root of your web site. It may be different from the web root.

request.site_path. This is a variable specified in the application.cfm for the site. It tells empower the relative path from site root to the directory where you have content managed by eMPower. If you are managing the entire site with empower, the value will be just “/”. If you are managing just a sub directory in that site, the value will be “/directory’s name/”.

request.empower_path. This is a variable in the application.cfm that tells empower what directory your site is in, relative to the web root. eMPower will either need to be a physical directory or virtual directory into that site root. In most cases, the value of this variable will be different from the value of the request.site_path variable. For instance; my site root could be in a directory called ektron and the folder ektron is a directory in my web root. I will be managing the entire site with eMPower so my request.site_path variable will be “/” but my request.empower_path variable will be “/ektron/” since that is my site root directory and empower will either be a physical directory or virtual directory into that site root.
NOTE: The default install will have both variables as “/”. Both variables will be just “/” when the site root and web root are the same.

The Configuration Changes

eMPower 3.6 includes many changes to help make the setup a little easier. We have two variables in the application.cfm of the site that allow you to specify path information for eMPower. The first variable is called request.site_path. This variable is used to determine that path from your site root (not the web root) to the directory that will be managed for eMPower. For instance, if you are going to manage just a subfolder off of your site, then the request.site_path variable will be that sub folder’s name. For example, I’m going to manage a subfolder off of my site called marketing, so the path in the URL is www.ektron.com/marketing. My request.site_path variable will read <cfset request.site_path=”/marketing/”>. If I was managing the whole site, that is www.ektron.com, the request.site_path variable will just read “/”.

The next variable is called request.empower_path. This is used to tell the application where to find the site root, relative to the WEB root. eMPower will either need to be a physical folder or a virtual folder into that site root folder. For instance, if your empower folder is in IIS’s root (c:\inetpub\wwwroot\) with your site root being a directory in wwwroot (c:\inetpub\wwwroot\mysite), then the request.empower_path will be \mysite\ since that is the root folder for your site and eMPower will need to be either a physical folder or virtual folder into that site root.

Ektron recommends that you have eMPower as a physical folder in the site root. There are several reasons for this. It will make it easier to set up because you don’t have to worry about creating virtual directories. It also makes it easier when upgrading. You won’t have to upgrade all sites but instead, just that one site.

The following is a list of possible configurations that you may have and how to configure these two variables in the application.cfm so eMPower works correctly.

Configuration Examples

The following is a list of 6 possible configurations. These are the most common configurations that we have encountered. If yours isn’t listed here, after reading these examples, you should be able to figure out what the variables should be. Also, When you install ColdFusion, it usually creates a default mapping for “/” that points to your web root, typically the same directory you installed ColdFusion into. Most of these configurations rely on that mapping for “/” being there.

Configuration 1: eMPower physically at the root of your website, site address is www.ektron.com. Whole site being managed by eMPower

With eMPower being physically at the root of your website, with the site root and web root being the same directory, you do not need to create any special mappings. The request.site_path and request.empower_path variables will both be “/”

This is what those lines should look like.

<cfset request.site_path = “/”>
<cfset request.empower_path = “/”>

ColdFusion Mappings:
Logical Path: “/”
Directory Path: “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\”

Configuration 2: Managing just a subdirectory off of the site root, eMPower physically in that subdirectory. Site is addressed as www.ektron.com/subdirectory/ with that subdirectory being the only part of the site managed by eMPower.

In this configuration, because you are managing a subdirectory off of your site root and eMPower is physically in that sub directory, you do not need to create any special CF mappings. You do need to make sure there is a mapping for “/” that points to your web root, but ColdFusion normally takes care of that when you install it. For example, the sub directory is called marketing and it is addressed like www.ektron.com/marketing, then in ColdFusion administrator you need to create a ColdFusion mapping that has a logical path of “/” with a directory path that points to where your web root physically exists on the file system.

Also, because you are managing a sub directory off of your site, and empower is a physical directory in that directory, you need to set request.site_path and request.empower_path to that directory.

The two variables in the application.cfm will look like the following.

<cfset request.site_path = “/marketing/”>
<cfset request.empower_path = “/marketing/”>

ColdFusion Mapping in CF administrator:
Logical Path: “/marketing/”
Directory Path: “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\marketing”

So, in this configuration, whatever the subdirectory is, you need to create a CF mapping for that subdirectory and specify that in the application.cfm.

Configuration 3: Managing a subdirectory off of the site root and the site root and web root are the same, eMPower physically in the site root of the website, but mapped as a virtual directory into the subdirectory of that site root.

In this configuration, we have eMPower physically at the site’s root. For instance, on the file system, my site root is c:\inetpub\wwwroot\ and eMPower is physically in that directory. The site could be access as www.ektron.com. The part that has content managed by eMPower is a sub directory off of the site root,

so the directory path on the file system could be c:\inetpub\wwwroot\marketing. This is addressed as www.ektron.com/marketing in the browser. eMPower is a virtual directory into the marketing directory. Because the section of the site that is being managed by eMPower is a subdirectory off of the site root, you need to create a ColdFusion mapping for /marketing/ but because empower is a virtual directory into that marketing folder, the ColdFusion mapping will actually read /marketing/empower. This will point to where the eMPower directory physically exists on the file system. You need to the mapping like this so ColdFusion is able to find the eMPower directory correctly.

In this example, the variables will be the following

request.site_path = “/marketing/”
request.empower_path = “/marketing/”

ColdFusion mappings:
Logical path: “/marketing/empower/”
Directory path: “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\empower”

Logical Path: “/”
Directory path: “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\”

Configuration 4: eMPower is installed physically in the web root with site root in a sub directory off of the web root. eMPower is a virtual directory in the site root.

The setup for this configuration is very close to Configuration 3 except that instead of having eMPower as a virtual directory into a sub directory of a site, it is a virtual directory into a site root. eMPower is a physical directory under the web root. The web root could be addressed as some IP address and the site root could have its own domain, but the point is that in this configuration, the web root and site root have different addresses. So, in this example, we have the web root at c:\inetpub\wwwroot and the site root is a sub directory called ektron. The web root has a different IP address than the site root.

This configuration is probably what hosting companies will use. They will install eMPower once into some default root and then map virtual directories of eMPower into the site roots.

In this example, the variables will be the following

request.site_path = “/”
request.empower_path = “/ektron/”

ColdFusion mappings:
Logical path: “/ektron/empower/”
Directory path: “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\empower”

Logical Path: “/”
Directory path: “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\”

Configuration 5: eMPower folder physically exists at the site root. The site root is in a different directory from the web root.

This configuration is very similar to configuration 1 except that that the web root and site root are two different directories. In our example, the web root is c:\inetpub\wwwroot and the site root is c:\inetpub\wwwroot\ektron and empower is a physical folder in the site root folder. In this configuration, we will need to create a ColdFusion mapping for just “/” that points to the web root. By default, when you install ColdFusion, it normally creates this mapping. Below is what the configuration settings should look like for this configuration

request.site_path = “/”
request.empower_path = “/ektron/”

In ColdFusion administrator
Logical path = “/”
Directory path = “c:\inetpub\wwwroot”.

Again, when you install ColdFusion administrator, it normally creates this mapping for you anyways, but you will want to verify that it exists.

Configuration 6: eMPower physically installed in site root, but site root is on another drive other than the web root.

In this configuration, we have the web root in c:\inetpub\wwwroot, but the site root is on another drive. In our example, its at d:\ektron and empower is

physically installed there. In this configuration, you would have to create a ColdFusion mapping for the site root. In this case the ektron folder and it would point to d:\ektron. You would also need to make sure that a ColdFusion mapping existed for just “/” and that it pointed to your web root, in this case c:\inetput\wwwroot.

In this configuration, the configuration settings will look like the following:

In application.cfm:
request.site_path = “/”
request.empower_path = “/ektron/”

In ColdFusion administrator:
Logical path = “/”
Directory path = “c:\inetpub\wwwroot”

Logical path = “/ektron/”
Directory path = “d:\ektron”