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Add Contentless metadata in alfresco

ojio_bis

I have a use case where I have a articletype as meta data for an content article.
This meta-data is not a fixed one and I need to some screens to manage this(create/read/update/delete)
I see there are three ways here.
1, Design lookup values for a piece of metadata in the content model as a typed list(Constraint).
2, One way to design is to store the articletype in relational world.
3, Model this meta data as content-less content model

The first solution will be less flexible as this meta-data needs to be managed. The second is simple and straight forward.
But I was planning to see if I can model this as content-less content model.

My Question is what will be option in alfreso web client / share to create screens to manage this model (with/without customising).

Can ECM forms can be used in this case?

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jck

Yes, you can design contentless metata in Alfresco.

But you can also take advantages of ECM and RDBMS in the same time. The open source SIDE-Labs project provides exactly this feature among other to develop CRM based on Alfresco.

The open source SIDE-Labs project, which is a set of graphical tools and server extensions for Alfresco developers, enables you to design your content types and generate automatically the content model on Alfresco. Then, an extension server provided with SIDE-Labs, enables you to use also a RDBMS to store all your metadata, without designing another content type or developing anything more.

How does it work? When a content (or contentless metadata) is inserted in Alfresco, a policy is triggered which copies Alfresco metadata in a shadow RDBMS, with a table for each content type. This gives you in fact a SQL view of Alfresco besides CIFS, FTP, WebDAV, http,… and enables you to write reports very easily, with SQL joins or whatever you want.

From our point of view, modern applications combine content and highly structured data (metadata) and it is a growing trend in a digitalizing society.

There will be a SIDE-Labs webinar with the 8/12/2009. You can find more information on Alfresco at http://www.alfresco.com/about/events/2009/12/bluexml_webinar/.

You can also find some information on SIDE-Labs (http://www.side-labs.org)

HTH,

JC

ojio_bis

Thanks a lot for the reply JC. I appreciate that. The answer was lucid, but it addressed one part of my problem.
In the sense, I can have both content view and rdbms view of the meta data. I am also interested to know the options of data entry and subsequent management of this contentless meta-data with in alfresco premise (extending alfresco webclient/ share or using ecm forms). Can anyone help me in that ?

jck

Hi ojio,
SIDE-Labs gives you a rdbms view of the metadata without disturbing Alfresco, so you work with Alfresco as usual and still have the same features. And SIDE-Labs may help you a lot also.

In fact, SIDE-Labs generates for you:
* the Alfresco required configuration, for web client and Alfresco Share
* the JSP you need
* the webscripts you need

SIDE-Labs enables you to draw 5 types of diagram. For each type, SIDE-Labs provides a part of the Alfresco required configuration:
* Data: content model generation
* Form: form generation (JSP and Webscripts for REST access to CRUD webscripts on Alfresco) on Chiba XForms, accessible through REST, so it is usable on WebClient or Alfresco Share
* Workflow: jPDL configuration, content model and form generation
* View: view configuration generation to customize document list and document details for Alfresco Share and web client
* Portal: portal configuration to organize content, to customize Alfresco share and add new pages

HTH,

JC

ojio_bis

Sounds Interesting JC. I tried downloading Topcased 3.2 (latest stable version) and installed SIDE from update site.
On trying, I am able to add a class on dtdi but I am not able to add a property or modify a name.

!ENTRY org.eclipse.ui 4 0 2009-12-02 00:18:06.213
!MESSAGE Unhandled event loop exception
!STACK 0
java.lang.ClassCastException: com.bluexml.side.Class.modeler.diagram.edit.ClazzEditPart‍‍‍‍

Is this is a compatibility/version issue ?

Thanks once again.

PS: I tried registering and logging in your forum. System is complaining about bad user/password even after going thru activation.

jck

Hi ojio,
what exact update site have you tried? Can you give me the used url?

When a problem like this one occurs, close Eclipse and relaunch it.

I'm going to check the SIDE-Labs forums. Thanks for the feedback,

JC

ojio_bis

Used this
http://www.side-labs.org/SIDE-Labs/2.0/update-site/

Trying now in 3.0.1. Is there anything to do with Vista ??

jck

I suggest you to carefully follow these 2 tutorials:
* http://www.side-labs.org/wiki/index.php/Documentation:User:QuickInstallation
* http://www.side-labs.org/wiki/index.php/Documentation:User:Installation for a more detail procedure

It is based on TopCASED 3.0.1

JC

PS: I tried SIDE-Labs forums. It seems ok. I saw your account was created. Can you log in? What problem have you got exactly?

ojio_bis

JC,

It works perfectly with Topcased 3.0.1. Seems to be version compatibility issue.

Thanks once again.

ojio_bis

Meanwhile, is there any simple example of how to add a contentless data using a webscript.
Say for ex: I want to create a department which has name, location and description. I will create a custom content model for this. How to insert/update/delete/read this data using webscript ??

Any pointers can really help.

amenel

Meanwhile, is there any simple example of how to add a contentless data using a webscript.
Say for ex: I want to create a department which has name, location and description. I will create a custom content model for this. How to insert/update/delete/read this data using webscript ??

Any pointers can really help.

Hi,
the simplest way would be to manage every aspect of the adding/deleting/updating by yourself, which means designing your interface (which is typically made of forms) AND the webscript. The advantage is to have complete control over the formats, encodings, assumptions and conventions; that advantage minimizes dependencies to work by others and notably, unspoken assumptions. The drawback is having to do some work before succeeding in adding/deleting/etc. However, that work is relatively (heavy stress on "relatively") easy and short.

If you head for the 'complete control' option, go for the Alfresco webscript reference: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Web_Scripts
Otherwise, you will have to reuse what some other people have already done.

Since we here at BlueXML already did that work, I can offer some insight (whenever work load allows) or an example of how the read/delete/etc. works currently. Let us know which way you choose to go.

amenel

Meanwhile, is there any simple example of how to add a contentless data using a webscript.

Say for ex: I want to create a department which has name, location and description. I will create a custom content model for this. How to insert/update/delete/read this data using webscript ??

Any pointers can really help.

There is no "simple example" because many steps/services/components are involved and a simple example is not enough. So I'll explain a few things and react to your questions.

Currently, we have a webscript that is deployed with XForms generation projects. A documentation should be available in the upcoming weeks. For now, the webscript exposes the API below for the operations you asked about. Note that "localhost:8080" is an example address for the host where the webscript is installed.

read: "http://localhost:8080/alfresco/service/xforms/read". Parameter: "objectId" (a complete Alfresco Id for the object to read with protocol and store, e.g. "workspace://SpacesStore/56146ba9-dfef-11de-9a2c-1955ff37e2bd"). Returns: an XML document that conforms to an xsd we defined. This service will read anything that is available in the Alfresco repository; we pose no restrictions in the webscript although Alfresco may prevent reading special stores or protocols (the "system" protocol comes to my mind).
delete: "http://localhost:8080/alfresco/service/xforms/delete". Parameter: "nodeRef" (also a complete Id). Returns the parameter that was provided. This service deletes the node ('NodeToDelete') whose Id is given, removing all its associations and deleting all nodes associated to NodeToDelete through ChildAssociations.
create/update/delete: "http://localhost:8080/alfresco/service/xforms/batch". This service is rather complex and I'll need more time to collect and present the information in a comprehensible form. I will post another message later specifically for batch. The batch service, also ruled by an xsd, supports Alfresco transactions and allows multiple operations (i.e. a mix of creations, updates and deletions) in one service call.
ASSUMPTIONS:
- the HTTP method for calling those URLs MUST be POST
- parameter names are case-sensitive
- all parameters, including numeric ones, are provided as strings

You may also be interested in:
list: "http://localhost:8080/alfresco/service/xforms/list". Parameters: 1- "type" (the name of a content type generated with SIDE), 2- "format" (a formatting specification for computing the label of each listed item. I'll come back to it in another post), 3- "query" (a string for restricting the items listed over searchable properties. For instance, if Department objects have searchable properties, providing "account" as query string will limit the listed items to the objects that have the string "account" in one of their searchable properties), 4- "maxResults" (the maximal number of items allowed in the result, no limit is applied if 0), 5- maxLength (if above 0, the length at which labels - indicated by the <value> tags in the example below - are truncated). Returns an XML document. This service lists all contents of the given type. If that type has subtypes, contents of those subtypes are also listed. We don't have an xsd for this service so here is an example of the result XML document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<results>
   <query>
      <count>4</count>
      <maxResults>0</maxResults>
      <returned>4</returned>
      <query/>
   </query>
   <item>
      <id>workspace://SpacesStore/1e07f303-db69-11de-9fde-adb9e3c8d923</id>
      <value>Langue fr_FR</value>
   </item>
   <item>
      <id>workspace://SpacesStore/33ee074a-db69-11de-9fde-adb9e3c8d923</id>
      <value>Langue en_US</value>
   </item>
   <item>
      <id>workspace://SpacesStore/4745cf91-db69-11de-9fde-adb9e3c8d923</id>
      <value>Langue en_GB</value>
   </item>
   <item>
      <id>workspace://SpacesStore/8e654b5a-ddd1-11de-914b-219683673b8d</id>
      <value>Langue it_IT</value>
   </item>
</results>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

jck

In very short,
SIDE-Labs takes care of all these things for you. You just have to design and generate and everything is ok.

You will find some documentation at:
* http://www.side-labs.org/wiki/index.php/Documentation

verview
* http://www.side-labs.org/wiki/index.php/Documentation:User:GettingStarted

HTH

JC

PS: SIDE-Labs Forums have been fixed. You need to recreate an account on http://www.side-labs.org/forums/

amisha

Very informative post.This is another strategic component in the content management.

amenel

As jck said, if you use SIDE-Labs, you won't have to worry about CRUD operations: we took care of that. What you'll have to do is this:
- model your content using a Data model
- model your forms using a Forms Model
- generate your models and deploy them to your Alfresco installation

From there you'll be able to create, read, update and delete the contentless metadata from the XForms webapp you generated and deployed. That data is stored in the repository under Data Dictionary > SIDEDATA in a folder whose name is the name you chose in the Data model. In case you have several content types defined in your model, there will be one folder per content type.

If you have another interface (like a Java or PHP application) or don't want to use the XForms forms, you may still use our webscript but you'll need some developer information, particularly the xsd files and format specification I mentioned in my previous post. If so, let us know.

ojio_bis

Thanks a lot for your replies JC and Amnel.
I am particularly interested to understand about the XSD file as I am not using XForms and I am planning for a custom Java application.
Once again Thanks a lot guys.