topic Re: Property Constraints in Alfresco Archive

Property Constraints

rich_weiskopf — Wed, 24 May 2006 19:17:38 GMT

Version: 1.3.0devWhere do I specify a constraint for a property in a property sheet; which config file?Rich

Re: Property Constraints

gavinc — Thu, 25 May 2006 12:39:36 GMT

Constraints for properties are defined in the model.

For the core cm: model, you'll need to look at projects/repository/config/model/contentModel.xml.

Re: Property Constraints

anweber — Tue, 30 May 2006 07:48:49 GMT

Hi,

In fact, we can see an example of the definition of a constraint in "contentModel.xml" (in the Alfresco 1.3 Community Preview Released). Is the way we can define such constraints described somewhere? Is it possible to define constrains between different properties. Can we use other languages than REGEX to express constraints.

   The example included in ContentModel.xml contains in the REGEX expression some escaped chars where it is not really necessary for a valid regex expression :
.*[\"\*\\\>\<\?\/\:\|\xA3\xAC\%\&\+\;]+.*
Could be written more simply :
.*["*\><?/\xA3\xAC%&+;].*

      Regards,

               Andre

Re: Property Constraints

gavinc — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 10:33:19 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions for the regular expression, anything to make them look less complex is a good thing

There is currently no support for defining constraints between properties.

Unfortunately, there isn't any supporting documentation at the moment for defining custom constraints.

As a starting point the constraint implementations are registered in projects\repository\source\java\org\alfresco\repo\dictionary\M2ConstraintDefinition.java. It will be a case of copying an existing constraint and modifying for your scenario.

Re: Property Constraints

vincent_os — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 16:02:50 GMT

Hello,

Can I confirm my understanding here in relation content validation using REGEX.

If I define a REGEX constraint as per example here: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Content_Model_Constraints
Does Alfresco take the REGEX constraint defined in the content model and apply it using client side java script? (as per explanation: "… The Alfresco Web Application UI has built-in javascript translation to enforce constraints on the browser clients for the built-in types. See org.alfresco.web.bean.generator.BaseComponentGenerator for more examples.")

With thanks,
Vincent.

Re: Property Constraints

mitpatoliya — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 06:09:05 GMT

yes , your understanding is correct.

Re: Property Constraints

vincent_os — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 08:12:00 GMT

Thank you for your reply.

The client side regex validation is not working for me. When I attempt to edit data in a data list that is associated with a regex validation, I would expect the "save" button to become disabled in the event the entered data violates the regex constraint. This is not happening. What does happen is that the update will fail as the regex seems to be applied during the update operation on the backend, generating the generic message "Could not update data item".

One more thing, in our deployment we have the "Share" and "Alfresco" web applications running on two separate Tomcat container instances.

Can you go into the mechanism by which the client side java script works. I am guessing that at deployment time the model.xml is parsed and the regex extracted and client side java script is generated? Or does the client invoke a server side validation webservice using ajax as I am editing in data in the browser?

Does our two container deployment configuration (described above) interfere with the client side validation?

With thanks,
Vincent

Re: Property Constraints

mitpatoliya — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 08:52:17 GMT

Actually I missed that validation done on server side You will find following line in the link you have posted.
Constraint checks are applied during integrity checks, typically at the end of a transaction within the server.
This should give you idea about how validation is handled.

Re: Property Constraints

vincent_os — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 09:10:00 GMT

OK, so the regex validation seems to be done both on the client side and server side. Ok makes sense (belt and braces).

For me, the server side validation is working, the client side is not. I would like to understand how the client side validation mechanism is implemented. Is it:

A) Java script generated from the regex defined in the model and somehow made available to the browser, and if so how.

B) A client side ajax call to a backend validation webservice

C) Something else

Thanks,
Vincent

Re: Property Constraints

vincent_os — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 10:25:00 GMT

OK, I have found the following: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Forms_Developer_Guide#Introduction
which explains the client side validation. Is it possible to verify that my regex constraint is getting loaded by the browser by inspecting the client side javascript files loaded by the browser using something like Firebug?

Re: Property Constraints

mitpatoliya — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 11:47:58 GMT

The link you which you are referring(http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Forms_Developer_Guide#Introduction) is specific to Alfesco Share.
In alfresco explorer there is only server side validation for constrain no client side validation done. In Alfresco Share you can see all the underlying files though Spring Surf Bug tool.

Re: Property Constraints

vincent_os — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:53:13 GMT

Thanks,

I am using Alfresco Share. What is the name of the javascript file (used in the browser) that will contain the regex constraint I defined in my model. I wish to confirm that my regex constraint is actually being sent to the browser client.

Thanks,
Vincent