topic Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described in Alfresco Archive

Adding new content types is not as easy as described

jbaton — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 09:47:33 GMT

Hi all,I'm trying to add a very simple new content type : Process consisting of a title and sub-processes.The goal is to be able to create the processes through the web client. I followed the wiki sayings but it did not work, so I'm doing it all over, step by step on a fresh reinstall (rc1b)I did cr

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

jbaton — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 10:21:00 GMT

My new model is in folder
C:\alfresco\jboss\server\default\conf\alfresco\model

Final symptom is that war file is not deployed, thus making application 404.

I tried to use a working uri in attribute uri of namespace, dropping mandatory aspects to reduce xml length to minimum.
Still got the same start problem.

What can be the problem with my new file ? As it for sure is the cause (as dropping its reference in application-context.xml lets jboss start normally)

Jerome, trying voodoo incantations on his pc :twisted:

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

jbaton — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 11:06:47 GMT

XML file now does validate against 'modelSchema.xsd' , "types" tags were missing.

It now looks like this


<model name="example:mynewmodel" xmlns="http://www.alfresco.org/model/dictionary/1.0">
   <description>GC Model</description>
   <author>JB</author>
   <version>0.1</version>

   <imports>
      <import uri="http://www.alfresco.org/model/dictionary/1.0" prefix="d" />

      <import uri="http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0" prefix="cm" />
   </imports>

   <namespaces>
      <namespace uri="http://jeromeb.free.fr/" prefix="gc" />
   </namespaces>

   <types>
      <type name="gc:process">
         <title>Process</title>

         <parent>cm:cmobject</parent>

         <properties>
            <property name="gccode">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>

            <property name="gctitle">
               <type>d:text</type>
            </property>
         </properties>

         <mandatory-aspects>
            <aspect>cm:ownable</aspect>

            <aspect>cm:versionable</aspect>
         </mandatory-aspects>

         <associations>
            <child-association name="cm:gcsubprocesses">
               <target>
                  <class>gc:process</class>
               </target>
            </child-association>
         </associations>
      </type>
   </types>
   
   
</model>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

But is still does not work.

Jerome

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

jbaton — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 13:18:01 GMT

Not thanks to voodoo tricks, I succeeded in first step of adding a new content type. Well, not as straightforward as written in the wiki.

Here is the working stuff, bolded the important points

<model name="gc:gcmodel" xmlns="http://www.alfresco.org/model/dictionary/1.0">
   <description>GC Model</description>
   <author>JB</author>
   <version>0.1</version>

   <imports>
      <import uri="http://www.alfresco.org/model/dictionary/1.0" prefix="d" />
      <import uri="http://www.alfresco.org/model/system/1.0" prefix="sys"/>
      <import uri="http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0" prefix="cm" />
   </imports>

   <namespaces>
      <namespace uri="http://www.wadael.org/model/content/0.1" prefix="gc" />
   </namespaces>

   <types>
     <type name="gcrocessus">
         <title>Process</title>
         <parent>sys:base</parent> <!– and not cmbject –>

         <properties>
            <property name="gc:code">
               <type>d:text</type>
               <mandatory>true</mandatory>
            </property>
            <property name="gc:titre">
               <type>d:text</type>
               <mandatory>true</mandatory>
            </property>
         </properties>

         <associations>
            <child-association name="gc:subprocessus">
               <target>
                  <class>gcrocessus</class>
               </target>
            </child-association>
         </associations>

         <mandatory-aspects>
            <aspect>cmwnable</aspect>
            <aspect>cm:versionable</aspect>
         </mandatory-aspects>

      </type>
   </types>
</model>

I'm pretty sure it will help a lot of persons.
My 2cts to this incredible software

Jerome

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

davidc — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 15:05:37 GMT

Hi Jerome,

Well, I hoped that voodoo would not be required to configure a new content model 🙂

I've noticed a few people have had difficulties in this area, so I'll be taking a walk through the wiki instructions with your model (and some others I've collected too) to make sure there aren't errors in the instructions and examples etc with the aim of improving them.

In particular, I'll expand on namespace usage, as this seems to have been the cause of several problems.

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

jbaton — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 15:48:50 GMT

David,

In fact, neither voodoo nor kicking in the box did work
But those medieval procedures had to be followed before further investigation.

As you have read, I succeeded to start Alfresco with my new content model. But I'm still on my way to be able to add my self-defined content using the web client.

I get NullPointerException in class BaseContentWizard (in method getObjectTypes, member dictionaryService is null which is bad).

Did I forget something so that the instanciation went wrong ?

Maybe a step is missing in the wiki's step by step. Like adding custom type at the end of the web-client-config.xml file (which I found in the forum)

I also read somewhere that a new wizard had to be provided. How ?

Thanks again.

Jerome

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

davidc — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 19:23:07 GMT

The nullpointer does indeed seem bad. I shall step through this tomorrow.

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

gavinc — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 08:06:26 GMT

The NullPointerException as you say is because the dictionaryService member variable is null. This is becuase the DictionaryService is not being "injected" into the managed bean.

Open WEB-INF/faces-config.xml and find the "AddContentWizard" managed bean section. Add the following XML to the managed bean config:

<managed-property>
   <property-name>dictionaryService</property-name>
   <value>#{DictionaryService}</value>
</managed-property>‍‍‍‍

You may also want to add the same to the "CreateContentWizard" managed bean config (immeditaley below in the file) as this wizard is used for creating inline content.

This is a fairly new addition functionality wise, so you're right there is no wiki steps describing how to configure the drop down of custom content types. However, the change above is not one you should need to make so
I'll add this now so it appears in the next release. Thanks for your efforts in tracking this one down.

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

jbaton — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 09:33:22 GMT

Gavin, David,

I'm glad to have helped you with your great software.
I'm sure, you'll help me again as my evaluation is going on (the next big point is custom workflow, then authentification).

After adding the xml, I followed the instructions to add my simple custom content type and be able to populate some using the web client.

Well … I'm a bit frustrated, I believed it was to work as wanted.

The resulting workflow I get after hitting "create content" is
1/ getting the html editor …. well I expected some input fields
2/ hitting next, properties, i'm then allowed to choose "Process" as type.
3/ hitting next, summary displays "content" as type

AAMOF, I have not seen any of the properties I have defined.

It would be more user fiendly if my "Process" content type was in the "content type" drop down list and not in the "type" dropdown list.
Or better if changing the "type" value (from content to something) would disable the "content type" list.

Could you give me a hint on how to make my model work (a process has a few properties and a collection of processes) with the web client.

Should I use aspects instead of types so that it is more smooth of use ? (then, how to create a collection ?)

Do I have to create my own jsps/code/… (what exactly?) to make it do what I want ?
No offense meant, I just mean that it is not easy to be generic and fulfill all requirements.

Thanks for your software that already fulfills many requirements.
(btw, a chart with planned and implemnted features would be nice)

Jerome

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

gavinc — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 11:59:13 GMT

Hi Jerome,

Yes, you're right, the custom properties will not get prompted for automatically yet. There are two issues covering this already, so we will add a solution in the future:

http://www.alfresco.org/jira/browse/AWC-243
http://www.alfresco.org/jira/browse/AWC-188

"Content type" should be read as mime type, if you want to add a new mime type you can edit the "mimetype-map.xml" configuration file.

To get prompted for your custom properties you would have to add a new JSP and modify org.alfresco.web.bean.wizard.*ContentWizard to save your extra properties and handle navigation. You will also need to add a navigation rule to get to your new JSP in faces-config-navigation.xml.

Hope some of that helps.

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

ctanis — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 19:01:12 GMT

To get prompted for your custom properties you would have to add a new JSP and modify org.alfresco.web.bean.wizard.*ContentWizard to save your extra properties and handle navigation. You will also need to add a navigation rule to get to your new JSP in faces-config-navigation.xml.

Is there an equivalent to the


<config evaluator="aspect-name" …>
<property-sheet>
…
‍‍‍‍‍

for custom content types, to at least expose the new properties?

A bigger, perhaps philosophical, question (inspired by jbaton): When is it appropriate to define a new content type instead of a new aspect?

thanks,
-craig

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

gavinc — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 10:39:27 GMT

Yes, there is an equivalent, swap "aspect-name" for "node-type".

Details are given in the web client configuration and property sheet wiki pages i've just finished updating….

http://www.alfresco.org/mediawiki/index.php/Web_Client_Model_Configuration_Guide
http://www.alfresco.org/mediawiki/index.php/PropertySheet

Re: Adding new content types is not as easy as described

davidc — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 13:30:22 GMT

A bigger, perhaps philosophical, question (inspired by jbaton): When is it appropriate to define a new content type instead of a new aspect?

Take a look at http://www.alfresco.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=222. See if that helps.