topic Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space in Alfresco Archive

Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

vasuki — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:13:20 GMT

Hi, I have added a new menu item (using web-client-config-custom.xml) that will trigger a Javascript. Now, I would like to limit the Spaces that this menu item shows up…I assume I need to use the "evaluator" and "condition" attributes (config tag) to do this, but I cannot find any documentation on h

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

rivarola — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:14:14 GMT

Hello,

You can use either use the evaluator/condition couple in the config element (see http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Web_Client_Configuration_Guide) or the evaluator tag inside the action element (see http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Externalised_Client_Actions#Action_Definition_Config_Elements) depending on how complex your visibility rule is.

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

vasuki — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:20:45 GMT

Hi rivarola,
Yes, I have seen those documents, but there is not much information on what evaluators are available (other than string-compare), and how to use them. For example, how exactly does string-compare work? Can it be used to restrict the config to a specific path? If yes, how can it be done?
Thanks!

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

gavinc — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 10:39:00 GMT

There are 2 types of evaluators, one for config and one for actions.

The evaluator for config determines whether the whole config block should be used depending on the object used when a config lookup is done. There is a small amount of information on this here: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Config_Service

For your scenario though it sounds like an action evaluator is more suited, documentation on these can be found here: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Externalised_Client_Actions#Action_Definition_Config_Elements. For some real examples of action evaluators look in the 'org.alfresco.web.action.evaluator' package.

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

elenaor — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:29:36 GMT

Hi, I would like to restrict an action to a specific space too. Did you finally achieve your purpose?
Thanks in advance. Elena

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

vasuki — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:10:24 GMT

Hi Elena,

No, I was not able to achieve my goal using the Alfresco UI or XML customization out-of-the-box. As Gavin wrote, I needed to write a custom ActionEvaluator (Java class) that gets executed to check whether to display the menu item or not. Writing that Java class was easy enough, and once I put the .jar in the /WEB-INF/lib folder, I was able to use my custom ActionEvaluator without any problems. Let me know if you need more help…

Thanks,
Vasuki.

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

elenaor — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:30:28 GMT

Hi, vasuki.
I'm going to try it. I hope not to have so much problems.
Thanks for your reply

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

elenaor — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:52:33 GMT

Hi vasuki,

actually, what I can't understand is what Java class do I have to use in order to get the space name. If I had the space name, I would be able of comparing this name with my current space name.

I would like that "Firmar" action appears only in Firmado space:
I have tried this CompareSpace.java:

package org.alfresco.web.action.evaluator;

import org.alfresco.web.action.ActionEvaluator;
import org.alfresco.web.bean.repository.Node;

public class CompareSpace implements ActionEvaluator{

   public boolean evaluate(Node node) {
      return (node.getName().equals("Firmado"));
   }

}

but it doesn't show anything.
Thanks in advance, Elena.

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

rivarola — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:57:14 GMT

Hello,

Your "evaluate" method is OK if the action is attached to the space itself (i.e. in the Create menu for instance) but if it is attached to a document in the space (like the "Edit" or "Show document details" actions), the node passed to the evaluate method is the document and not the parent space.
In this case you can test either the name of the primary parent of the node (first option) or the name of the current space using the navigation bean (second option) :

  public boolean evaluate(Node node) {
    FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
    ServiceRegistry services = Repository.getServiceRegistry(fc);
    NavigationBean navigator = (NavigationBean) FacesHelper.getManagedBean(fc, NavigationBean.BEAN_NAME);

    NodeRef space = navigator.getCurrentNode().getNodeRef();
    // check the current space name is "Firmado"
    return "Firmado".equalsIgnoreCase((String) services.getNodeService().getProperty(space, ContentModel.PROP_NAME));
  }
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

vasuki — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:01:20 GMT

Hi Elena,

Sounds like rivarola knows a lot more about this stuff than I do. Here is the code I used since I wanted to restrict the action to a space and all of its subspaces:


public class MySpaceEvaluator implements ActionEvaluator
{
    public boolean evaluate(Node node)
    {
        return (node.getPath().contains("MySpace"));
    }
}
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

elenaor — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:59:35 GMT

Thanks vasuki, thanks rivarola.

It works perfectly now!

Elena

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

rivarola — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:49:40 GMT

Hello all,

I tried your path comparison this morning and ran through an unexpected problem : the node.getPath method does not return the concatenation of the traversed node names, but the concatenation of the navigated child association names.
The result is the same… excepted when one of the nodes have been created with a copy/paste or cut/paste operation. In this case the new node name is the same as the source node (if pasted in another space) but the association name is cm:move (and not cm:[THE NAME OF THE NODE]).
Conclusion : if one of the node of the hierarchy is the result of a paste or move operation the comparison based on path may not have the expected result. :twisted:

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

vasuki — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:17:04 GMT

Hello rivarola,

I'm not sure what you're talking about here. But I tried to do a node.getPath() on a document called "TestingEvaluator" in a space called "MySpace" and this is what I got:


/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/application/1.0}company_home/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}MySpace/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}TestingEvaluator
‍‍‍

Then I copied the same document to a different space called "MyCopySpace". When I did a node.getPath() on the copy, this is what I get:


/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/application/1.0}company_home/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}MyCopySpace/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}TestingEvaluator
‍‍‍

So, as you can see, there is no difference in the path other than the name of the space, which was expected.
Therefore, my method of using node.getPath().contains(…) works on all nodes, whether copied or not…

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

rivarola — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:40:36 GMT

Hello vasuki,

It seems OK for the copy but try the Move action of the "Run action" wizard on a space.
It changes the name of the child association holding the moved space. For instance I moved the "Workflow" space with original path :

   /{http://www.alfresco.org/model/application/1.0}company_home/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}Demo/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}Chantier1/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}Workflow ‍

to the Chantier2 space, and its path became :

   /{http://www.alfresco.org/model/application/1.0}company_home/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}Demo/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}Chantier2/{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}move ‍

The space name is still "Workflow" but its path does not contain "Workflow". :roll:

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

paullewon — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:24:09 GMT

Hi,

I'm attempting to implement this in almost exactly the same way, but I'm getting an error to the catalina.out log file when I try to start Alfresco. Excerpted here:

14:47:41,798 ERROR [web.context.ContextLoader] Context initialization failed
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'webClientConfigService' defined in class path resource [alfresco/web-client-application-context.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is org.alfresco.config.ConfigException: Unable to construct action 'approve' evaluator classname: org.alfresco.web.action.evaluator.SciRCFolderIsReview
Caused by: 
org.alfresco.config.ConfigException: Unable to construct action 'approve' evaluator classname: org.alfresco.web.action.evaluator.SciRCFolderIsReview
   at org.alfresco.web.config.ActionsElementReader.parseActionDefinition(ActionsElementReader.java:222)
   at org.alfresco.web.config.ActionsElementReader.parse(ActionsElementReader.java:92)
   at org.alfresco.config.xml.XMLConfigService.parseConfigElement(XMLConfigService.java:258)
   at org.alfresco.config.xml.XMLConfigService.parse(XMLConfigService.java:114)
   at org.alfresco.config.BaseConfigService.parse(BaseConfigService.java:221)
   at org.alfresco.config.xml.XMLConfigService.init(XMLConfigService.java:78)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
.
.
.
14:47:41,920 ERROR [[Catalina].[localhost].[/alfresco]] Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'webClientConfigService' defined in class path resource [alfresco/web-client-application-context.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is org.alfresco.config.ConfigException: Unable to construct action 'approve' evaluator classname: org.alfresco.web.action.evaluator.SciRCFolderIsReview
Caused by: 
org.alfresco.config.ConfigException: Unable to construct action 'approve' evaluator classname: org.alfresco.web.action.evaluator.SciRCFolderIsReview
   at org.alfresco.web.config.ActionsElementReader.parseActionDefinition(ActionsElementReader.java:222)
   at org.alfresco.web.config.ActionsElementReader.parse(ActionsElementReader.java:92)
   at org.alfresco.config.xml.XMLConfigService.parseConfigElement(XMLConfigService.java:258)
   at org.alfresco.config.xml.XMLConfigService.parse(XMLConfigService.java:114)
   at org.alfresco.config.BaseConfigService.parse(BaseConfigService.java:221)
   at org.alfresco.config.xml.XMLConfigService.init(XMLConfigService.java:78)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
.
.
.
14:47:42,005 ERROR [[Catalina].[localhost].[/alfresco]] Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.alfresco.web.app.ContextListener
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'webClientConfigService' defined in class path resource [alfresco/web-client-application-context.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is org.alfresco.config.ConfigException: Unable to construct action 'approve' evaluator classname: org.alfresco.web.action.evaluator.SciRCFolderIsReview
Caused by: 
org.alfresco.config.ConfigException: Unable to construct action 'approve' evaluator classname: org.alfresco.web.action.evaluator.SciRCFolderIsReview
   at org.alfresco.web.config.ActionsElementReader.parseActionDefinition(ActionsElementReader.java:222)
   at org.alfresco.web.config.ActionsElementReader.parse(ActionsElementReader.java:92)
   at org.alfresco.config.xml.XMLConfigService.parseConfigElement(XMLConfigService.java:258)
   at org.alfresco.config.xml.XMLConfigService.parse(XMLConfigService.java:114)
   at org.alfresco.config.BaseConfigService.parse(BaseConfigService.java:221)
   at org.alfresco.config.xml.XMLConfigService.init(XMLConfigService.java:78)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
.
.
.
Nov 26, 2007 2:47:42 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext start
SEVERE: Error listenerStart
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Here's my .jar:

package org.alfresco.web.action.evaluator;

import org.alfresco.web.action.ActionEvaluator;
import org.alfresco.web.bean.repository.Node;

public class SciRCFolderIsReview implements ActionEvaluator
{
    public boolean evaluate(Node node)
    {
        return (node.getPath().contains("Ready for Review"));
    }
} ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

What am I missing?

Thanks,

Paul

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

vasuki — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:44:22 GMT

Hi Paul,

Your code looks ok, so the only thing I can assume is that Alfresco is unable to find your custom class in the classpath. Where are you placing your .jar file?

Vasuki.

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

paullewon — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:57:38 GMT

Hi Vasuki,

It's in /opt/alfresco/tomcat/webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/lib

Thanks,

Paul

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

vasuki — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:03:55 GMT

Well, that should be the right place! Can you post the relevant section of your web-client-application-context.xml file?

Also, note that I made my changes to a different config file - web-client-config-custom.xml - maybe you are updating the wrong file? I am not an expert on the many config files in Alfresco, but I'm just throwing this out there as a possibility.

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

paullewon — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:11:54 GMT

Hmm…I reference my evaluator in my web-client-config-custom.xml in /opt/alfresco/tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco/extension:

<action id="approve">
            <evaluator>org.alfresco.web.action.evaluator.SciRCFolderIsReview</evaluator>
            <label>Approve</label>
            <onclick>javascript:myhandler</onclick>
            <!– script attribute for specifying a javascript file to execute - by Path or NodeRef –>
            <script>/Company Home/Data Dictionary/Scripts/SciRC_Status_to_Publishable.js</script>
            <!– params specify the <f:param> tags to be generated as children of the action component –>
            <!– accessable by an ActionEvent handler or passed directly as href/script URL arguments –>
            <params>
               <param name="id">#{actionContext.id}</param>
            </params>
         </action>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Am I missing a necessary customization to /opt/alfresco/tomcat/webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/classes/alfresco/web-client-application-context.xml ?

Paul

Re: Restricting a menu item to a specific Space

vasuki — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 03:01:21 GMT

Paul -
Everything looks fine to my eye. Based on your error message, the only possibilities I see are that the evaluator class is not being found in the classpath, or the XML has some errors in it (parsing problem). But after reading your replies, I don't see how either is possible. Unless your JAR file is somehow not correctly packaged - I noticed you used an alfresco package name for your class - maybe this is a problem? If it is an XML parsing issue, you may want to remove one line at a time from the action configuration, and see if the error goes away…