First Steps with FirstSpirit Cloud

1. Get Started

Welcome to FirstSpirit Cloud - our Software as a Service (SaaS) environment. This document will guide you through the first steps, which are necessary to use FirstSpirit.

New Accounts are created and managed either by our Technical Support Team or if you wish on your own (see 'User management in FirstSpirit Cloud'). To get access please create a ticket via 'https://support.crownpeak.com/'.
For more information please have a look at Help @ Crownpeak.

1.2. User management

The FirstSpirit Cloud uses Keycloak to manage users. Keycloak is an open source solution from the Red Hat company for managing digital identities and permissions. If you would like to manage your user on your own please let us know. For more information please have a look at 'Cloud User Management'.

After your account is created, you will get an email to activate your account first.

How to activate your account:

Please open the URL https://accounts.e-spirit.cloud/

Abbildung 1. Define password with Password Self Service
Please enter your email address (all lowercase), which represents your FirstSpirit user name (e.g myemailaddress@crownpeak.com)
Afterwards you will receive an email to set your password Please check your spam folder, just in case the confirmation email got delivered there instead of your inbox
Please set your password and make sure that no German Umlaut is used After changing the password no further email will be sent!

1.4. Help @ Crownpeak

If you have any technical issues, please contact our Technical Support.

Create a Ticket via Our Support Portal: You can sign up to the 'Support Portal' where you can create a ticket. Here you can additionally track and check the status of your requests/tickets.

For more information please have a look at Our Support Services.

1.5. Your FirstSpirit Environment

Your FirstSpirit Cloud includes three environments, which are described below.

Development (DEV): This is the area for Developers.
Quality Assurance (QA): This environment (also called staging or testing area) is a nearly exact replica of the production environment for testing and to ensure quality before transfer to the Production Environment.
Production (PROD): This is the area for creating and editing your content. Every content which is deployed/published is saved here.

1.6. New Projects

New projects are created by our Technical Support. If new projects are required, please create a ticket.

Following information are needed:

Project name (defined by you; e.g. myProject)
On which stage the project is needed (DEV/QA/PROD)
Which roles/user shall have access to this project

For more information please have a look at Roles & Permissions.

2. System URLs

Below you will find the most important URLs for your Cloud Environment.

2.1. FirstSpirit Landingpage/Stages

Your FirstSpirit stages are reachable via following URLs:

Development (DEV)
https://<customer>dev.e-spirit.hosting
Quality Assurance (QA)
https://<customer>qa.e-spirit.hosting
Production (PROD)
https://<customer>.e-spirit.hosting

2.2. Developer URLs

2.2.1. Build-Pipeline/Logging

Logging GUI
https://<customer>-logging.e-spirit.hosting
Git-Repository
https://git.e-spirit.hosting
Bamboo
https://ci.e-spirit.hosting
Artifactory-URL
https://artifactory.e-spirit.hosting

There is no web interface for Artifactory; the URL appears here only for completeness. The URL can still be relevant for module development.

2.2.2. CloudFront URLs/Configuration (S3 Deployment)

Development (DEV)

Tabelle 1. Development URLs
Target Platform S3 Bucket	<customer>dev.e-spirit.cloud
Base URL	https://<customer>dev.e-spirit.cloud/
Distribution ID	<CloudFront Distributions ID DEV>

Quality Assurance (QA)

Tabelle 2. QA URLs
Target Platform S3 Bucket	<customer>qa.e-spirit.cloud
Base URL	https://<customer>qa.e-spirit.cloud/
Distribution ID	<CloudFront Distributions ID QA>

Production (PROD)

Tabelle 3. Production URLs
Target Platform S3 Bucket	<customer>prod.e-spirit.cloud
Base URL	https://<customer>prod.e-spirit.cloud/
Distribution ID	<CloudFront Distributions ID PROD>

3. Roles and Permissions

3.1. Default groups

This is a list of default groups. These are best practice advices and can be used or extended individually.

Editorial Groups: Editor can manage, edit and request content for release
Chief-Editor can manage, edit and release content for publishing
Administrators: Project-Admin has full control at project level
Developer Groups: GIT User has access to Bitbucket & Bamboo
Template Distribution User is able to transfer templates (Page Templates, Section Templates, etc.) from one stage to another

For more information please have a look at Template Distribution.

3.2. Create or change user accounts

Create and manage new accounts simply by using the Keycloak interface of the FirstSpirit Cloud itself.
For user management you need a user with the role User-Manager.

For more information please have a look at the documentation about 'User management in FirstSpirit Cloud'.

4. Delivery strategy

Currently the content can be published (via push strategy) in the S3 bucket from AWS. Files such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript and media, i.e. everything without server-side-logic, can be stored here. The Content as a Service can be used for the pull strategy and embedded in its own (hybrid approach) applications.

For further information please have a look at CDN.

5. CaaS Connect (Content as a Service)

This service is usage-based. A valid CaaS license is required

Content as a Service (hereafter referred to as CaaS) offers companies the agility necessary for their customer communication. It enables the provision of content fragments and has an interface for their retrieval. This means that data can be reused indefinitely without any additional implementation effort. Publishing to a targeted channel is no longer necessary. In accordance with the best-of-breed philosophy, the design and composition of the presented content are thus completely detached from FirstSpirit. This increases independence, flexibility and speed in project implementation.

CaaS consists of the CaaS Platform, providing a service (API) reachable from the Internet for retrieval and a module (CaaS Connect) running on the FirstSpirit Server, that automatically syncs editorial data to the CaaS platform.

For further information please have a look at the following documents: Content as a Service, CaaS Connect: Module documentation, and CaaS Connect: Documentation for Administrators.

5.1. CaaS URLs

For the corresponding CaaS URLs to retrieve data for a specific project, refer to the module configuration. For details see the corresponding section in CaaS Connect: Documentation for Administrators.

5.2. CaaS API Keys

To use CaaS, API keys are required for authorization. The API keys listed in this document provide read and write access for all CaaS projects of your specific DEV/ QA/ PROD environment. They can also be used to create additional API keys.

Additionally, project specific API keys are created when the CaaS Connect Project App is added to the project. These keys are available to the responsible Project Admins through the CaaS Connect Project UI in the ServerManager. Only these API keys should be used to access the API for querying or writing data from custom applications.

API keys should not be disclosed! If an API key is leaked make sure to create a new API key and remove the old key. To minimize the impact of breaches, use project specific API keys without write access, if appropriate.

Development (DEV): API Key
Quality Assurance (QA): API Key
Production (PROD): API Key

5.3. Frontend Library and demo PWA

We strongly recommend the usage of our FSXA frontend library which wraps access to the CaaS and facilitates development of applications using CaaS. The library is available on GitHub. There is also an example PWA we provide on GitHub to demonstrate the usage of this library.

6. Navigation Service

This service is usage-based. A valid CaaS license is required.

For the modern headless world, we provide with the Navigation Service a solution that seamlessly integrates a dynamic mapping between a navigation route and the corresponding content behind it.
For accessing the Navigation Service please use the URLs provided in the UI of the Navigation Service Module (see Navigation Service: Module Documentation).
The CaaS Frontend Library mentioned in section 5.3. also includes means to communicate with the Navigation Service and the example PWA hosted on GitHub utilizes this functionality.

For further information please have a look at Navigation Service documentation.

7. SmartSearch

This service is usage-based. A valid license is required.

7.1. SmartSearch URLs/Credentials

Development (DEV)

Tabelle 4. Development URLs
Cockpit	https://<customer>-dev-search.e-spirit.cloud/login.html
API-GW	https://<customer>-dev-search-api.e-spirit.cloud/
User	<smartSearchUsername>
Password	<smartSearchPassword>

Production (PROD)

Tabelle 5. Production URLs
Cockpit	https://<customer>-search.e-spirit.cloud/login.html
API-GW	https://<customer>-search-api.e-spirit.cloud/
User	<smartSearchUsername>
Password	<smartSearchPassword>

8. TranslationStudio

This service is usage-based. A valid license is required.

The next level of translation management. TranslationStudio is AI-based and also offers out-of-the-box TMS connectors such as Across, memoQ and many more.

For more information please have a look at TranslationStudio.

9. FirstSpirit Cloud Documentation

For more information about Module Development, Build Pipeline, Deployment, etc. please have a look at FirstSpirit Cloud Documentation.

10. Patchday/Maintenance

Every 4 weeks there is a scheduled Patch Day and down time for the maintenance and installation of a new software update for your FirstSpirit Cloud Environment. The down time is scheduled to deploy the updates. For further information see schedule information below.

All users will get informed of any down time via email at least seven days upfront.
All users will get informed after finishing Patch Day.
Urgent Security Patches can be rolled-out immediately and regardless of the Patch Day.
There are no Patch Days or Down Times in December.

Down time/schedule information

Tabelle 6. Schedule information
FirstSpirit Cloud instance	Date
Production	see Patch Day calendar
Development \| Quality Assurance	see Patch Day calendar

Tabelle 7. Timezones
Timezone	Time
CET Central European Time Berlin, Rome, Amsterdam	7 am to 9 am

11. Our Support Services

11.1. Technical Support - Availability

Our Technical Support is available from Monday to Friday (except on federal holidays), between 9.00 am and 6.00 pm.

11.2. High Availability - 24/7 Support

Our 24/7 Support may apply if you agreed on this in your software maintenance agreement.

11.3. Priority

When submitting a support request you are able to assign a priority. This priority is to be in accordance with the service categories. The priority you choose will be checked for reasonability by the Technical Support and may be changed. If you do not assign a priority we automatically assume an average priority.

For more information please have a look at Priorities & Service Categories.

12. Customer Success Management

Your Success Management Team…

is your first & main point of contact moving forward from the very beginning
is your advisor for all questions about FirstSpirit new Features, Roadmaps, Feedback…
will contact you in a proactive & regular manner during & after On-Boarding
will ensure that you’re receiving the tools & support needed to achieve your goals!

What you also need to know is…

Our service is an inclusive service and offered to our Cloud Customers only.
While your Success Management Team will contact you proactively, our Technical Support will most likely react on your request. However, both teams will provide you with useful and reliable support.

If you have additional feedback or any questions, please feel free to contact us at customer-success@e-spirit.com.

Our Team is always at your disposal.

We wish you much success with FirstSpirit Cloud.

13. Legal notices

General Cloud Documentation is a product of e-Spirit AG, Dortmund, Germany.
Only a license agreed upon with e-Spirit AG is valid for using the module.

14. Hilfe

Der Technical Support der e-Spirit AG bietet qualifizierte technische Unterstützung zu allen Themen, die FirstSpirit™ als Produkt betreffen. Weitere Hilfe zu vielen relevanten Themen erhalten und finden Sie in auch in unserer Community.