Hello all,
After reading about MSM I’ve decided I’m not willing to deal the possible failure of our production installation should something be defective with the archive.
That said, FastFoward is a gem and we are using much of it in development. However, documentation recommends NOT installing FastForward in production. I definitely understand keeping a production system clean of unused elements, but other than that is there any reason to not install it on production?
Thanks much. 
The primary reason for not installing it is keep the production system “clean”.
It’s possible to install Fast-Forward without the “sample content” (e.g. just the content types and templates). This may be a better choice for you.
The risk of an MSM installation of various Fast Forward components isn’t that large, especially since you will be doing this right after you’ve installed the production server (and before the server is live).
Dave
[QUOTE=gbadine;817]Hello all,
After reading about MSM I’ve decided I’m not willing to deal the possible failure of our production installation should something be defective with the archive.
[/QUOTE]
So, if you are not using MSM, how are you deploying between development and production environments? How do you move content?
Have other RX users figured out a work around for MSM?
We’ve used the option to install Fast Forward without the “sample content.” You basically have no choice if you want Rhythmyx to manage your navigation for you (as opposed to, say, using some server-side code on the web server.) You do get a lot of content types, slots and templates which you are then unsure if you can delete or not (some are key to getting the navigation to work, some aren’t.) Another option, to just install the navigation elements from Fast Forward, would be a good idea for a future version of Rhythmyx, I think (along with some additional documentation about the implications of each choice.)
Andrew.
Andrew, I installed our production server without FF, and am trying to use MSM to move one site from dev to production, expecting that the (modified) FF navigation will move along with it. Are you saying that you weren’t successful in moving FF navigation using MSM?
No, we didn’t try MSM until we thought we had a system that was set up along the right lines. That was long after deciding whether to install with FastFoward or not.
We tried installing Rhythmyx on a server without any FastForward. We spent a couple of weeks setting up content types, then discovered it couldn’t do managed navigation, tried creating the navon content types ourselves, couldn’t get it work, gave up on it, and reinstalled Rhythmyx with FastForward instead. When we called Percussion we were told that of course managed navigation wouldn’t work without FastForward. Which is fine, just a pity that fact isn’t in the manuals (or at least anywhere I could find it - I’d put it in bold 24 point on the first page.) What is does say, on page 68 of the Implementation Guide, is “Rhythmyx includes a Managed Navigation system” when it should say “FastFoward includes a Managed Navigation system.”
Rant off.
Maybe if we had tried using MSM to copy over selected managed navigation elements from another system that did have FastForward installed, as you are proposing, it would have worked. We didn’t think of that. But there is more to the managed navigation that just the content types (navon, navtree, navimage), slots and templates. There are configuration files like navigation.properties that might not be copied over by MSM. And the navons are treated differently in the 6.5.2 Workbench - they are in a separate folder, with different icons to the other content types. Also, any folder structure you have already set up on your production server will lack the necessary navtree and navon items. So at the very least this will be a laborious process.
Andrew.
Sorry, it does say…
Uncheck the following options: […] Rhythmyx FastForward (You will be deploying your modified FastForward
implementation to this server.)
…on page 26 of the Setting Up the Rhythmyx Production Environment manual. So I guess MSM will copy over all the necessary stuff for managed navigation. We didn’t read that document at the time, because we weren’t setting up a production environment back then.
Andrew.
The Setting Up the Rhythmyx Production Environment manual seems to have been rewritten in the last week…