topic Automatic content name allocation in Alfresco Archive

Automatic content name allocation

alloydog — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:27:13 GMT

Is it possible to set a content rule so that when new content is created (as opposed to being uploaded), the General Property field Name is generated automatically, such as a number?Then all other content created after that, the number is incremented.Basically, we after some sort of automatic docume

Re: Automatic content name allocation

sbuckle — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:11:45 GMT

You can add an inbound rule on the space where you want to store the files: "View Details" -> "Manage Content Rules" -> "Create Rule". The rule will only fire when things get created in the space. You could then choose to run a JavaScript file as the action of that rule and then you could grab the "sys:node-dbid" property of the newly created file and set the name of the file to that; I believe that property is the id of the node in the database so it will be a number and unique.

Re: Automatic content name allocation

zaizi — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:45:56 GMT

You might be better of creating a custom content wizard. The issue with content rules is that they get executed after the content item has been authored by the user and when it gets saved in the space. So your users are going to have to fill something in to the name field.

Using a custom content wizard you can hide the Name property field and write your own custom code to generate / look up the unique ID and pre-populate the name property. This should be wrapped in a user transaction.

Content rules can still be used to update the name field post upload to cater for content uploaded / emailed / ftp'd to the repository.

Details of how to customise the create content: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Customising_The_Create_Content_Wizard.

Re: Automatic content name allocation

alloydog — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:07:47 GMT

Thanks - I'll try the content rules wizard, as we are currently still playing around with the online demo service, while we try and get the actual system up and running on local server.