Hello Samuel,
“What confuse me the most is that there is diagram on SAP Website that doesn’t align with the above description. Is shows ArchiveLink as an application that would access the CMS module of KPRO to access documents. However, all my readings are more align toward the description above…”
May be from the Kpro perspective it is an application rather than an infrastruce that uses content Management service.
My reason for this is even though Kpro & Archivelink has their own TC's/Programs for achieving the same purpose like for example for document type creation, we OAC2 in case of Archivelink and different TC in case of Kpro for the same purpose. BUT whichever the case may be they should use the common application independent infrastruce TC's/Programs like communication infrastructure "OAC0", monitoring Queues like "OAM1" which are part of CMS of Kpro but still being used by Archivelink.
I am not sure of reason why it is represented as application, may be it should have be represented as one of Document management infrasture in parallel with KPRO using the CMS of Kpro. Even the packages in SAP shows the same.
“Also, I'm still confused on the roles of the Document Management Service (DMS) and Content Management Service (CMS) inside KPRO. Both seems to be there as an abstraction layer between the SAP and the physical storage of the documents. I understand that DMS is used to manage all the attributes, relationships, version etc... If that's the case then, what does CMS that is not done by DMS?”
I think DMS -> provides the infrasturce for dealing with documents like as you said attributes, versions...etc...etc as per content models
CMS -> provides the infrasture for dealing with communication like supporting document area, protocols definition, certificate checks, queues...etc...etc
“Finally, we're looking to use a third party Document management system to store most of the content. Any of the solution above more adapted to third party integration?”
All the 3rd party content managements systems should align to support both Kpro & Archivelink. What differs is whether is database or content server based content management system. For example, informatica provides database based content management systems while OpenText, EMS & others provides content server based content management system.
“I’m currently evaluating the best approach to store and manage document that would be used in SAP. During my researches, I found that there is several components that could be used for more or less the same purpose but I have a hard time to see the overall picture.”
It depends on your requirement but if you are looking for a document and data storage to integrate more with business process of SAP for content server based CMS, which many prefer otherwise you can evaluate others.
Hope I have not confused you :). Please post if I did, I will try to clarify.
Thanks,
Kolusu