topic Re: Generator and/or Converter to show content properties in Alfresco Archive

Generator and/or Converter to show content properties

lapo — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:49:38 GMT

Hi.I have created a few aspects, a few new textual & date properties, and all works perfectly, get indexed by Lucene, are shown and edited correctly in the webclient, all is peachy (not without a learning curve, that is, but I've got far enough on that curve to have them working).The problem is

Re: Generator and/or Converter to show content properties

gavinc — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:20:14 GMT

Content properties are not supported in the property sheet (in fact those properties are set to read-only) so there is a good chance the context is not being setup properly for the converter to work.

If all you want to do is get the byte size of some content it will probably be easier to expose the byte size as an additional property of the client side Node object the web client uses.

If you look at BrowseBean.queryBrowseNodes() you'll notice some additional properties being added via 'propertyResolvers', I would try this approach. In fact, there is already a "size" property added for the default content property so you can use this as an example.

Re: Generator and/or Converter to show content properties

lapo — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:36:09 GMT

First of all, thanks for the fast reply, it's much appreciated!
That content is not really something that can be easily "summarized" in a normal property: the custom property contains (probably large) binary data that must be parsed in its components (example given, one of the components is a digital signature that must be verified).
Using a full-fledged Generator there would be the same problems to access a content property as there are with a Converter?
Or are there other ways to customize the webclient with custom pieces? (maybe a wizard, or custom JSPs… I'm just brainstorming here, but I'll take a better look at the documentation; any pointer to the correct section is appreciated)

Re: Generator and/or Converter to show content properties

dhalupa — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:47:13 GMT

I will try to list steps which are needed to achieve custom visual representation of binary data

1. As Gavin allready said, first thing you have to do is change BrowseBean.queryBrowseNodes and add your own NodePropertyResolver implementation which will return your binary content.
2. You will have to write and register custom JSF component. The responsibility of this component is to analyze bound binary data and render visual representation.
3. Write and register component generator which will instantiate and initialize your custom component and will also perform value binding.
4. Register new component generator with property sheet

Kind regards,

Denis

Re: Generator and/or Converter to show content properties

lapo — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:55:21 GMT

Ah OK, I misunderstood Gavin regarding the resolvers, I tought he meant an actual property had to be created. I'll take a deep look at those classes you both mentioned, thanks for the pointers!

Re: Generator and/or Converter to show content properties

gavinc — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:11:06 GMT

Thanks for clarifying Denis