topic Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan in Alfresco Forum

How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

arnieHHS — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 20:10:09 GMT

This link https://docs.alfresco.com/content-services/latest/develop/oop-sdk/

Shows a very terse Sdk5DemoApplication to start up a RESTful listener against a repo. I want to add ECM functionality to a multi-module EAR and want to isolate all that code to a new module (a spring jar).

I have added said jar's root package to the application's @ComponentScan list of packages. But how do I tell Spring to find (aka scan) the Alfresco API beans?

The documentation is very vague as to what is being scanned/initialized. Specifically in regards to this: @Autowired SitesApi sitesApi; Which implies there's a SitesApiImpl somewhere to be instantiated. Will scanning be enough or will a @PostConstruct method also be necessary?

Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

angelborroy — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 07:07:28 GMT

Hope this helps:

https://github.com/aborroy/alfresco-rest-client/blob/7d5a221c1e02b97498338e3d8c1ed9ad03c7a993/src/main/java/org/alfresco/rest/client/action/CreateSiteApp.java#L44

Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

arnieHHS — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 14:30:24 GMT

Sorry, it does not. That class demonstrates how to USE the Spring beans that are in the *Api interfaces after being injected by the Spring container.

My question is how to tell Spring to find and create the implementations of said APIs.

In my case with Spring MVC this is done via an annotated configuration class:

@Import({PersistenceConfig.class})
@EnableWebSecurity
@EnableAsync
@EnableScheduling
@EnableWs
@EnableWebMvc
@ComponentScan(basePackages = { "app.package.name",

And my application will be running "out-of-process" with Alfresco which will be on another server.

I have added:

"org.alfresco.core.*","lib.package.name"

And will test shortly. But that will only work if the Spring bean configuration information is present on the class path, in the form of XML or annotated classes.

I have looked in the alfresco-core-rest-api-7.2.0.jar and alfresco-java-rest-api-common-7.2.0.jar jars and found no such XML files. Not sure if there are any classes either because according to alfresco-core-rest-api-7.2.0-javadoc, there's nothing in that JAR but interfaces.

Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

angelborroy — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 14:50:56 GMT

Spring cannot instantiate those Alfresco REST interfaces via @ComponentScan. Scanning only finds concrete @Component classes, and the Alfresco JARs you checked mostly contain interfaces, so there is nothing to create.

Those interfaces become beans only if you use a proxy mechanism, typically OpenFeign, or the Alfresco Spring Boot starter that auto-registers Feign clients.

If using Spring Boot, add org.alfresco:alfresco-java-rest-api-spring-boot-starter and ensure auto-config is enabled.

Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

arnieHHS — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:00:15 GMT

The app is not spring-boot; its an MVC app that runs in an application server along side EJBs as well.

So is there a code example of this "OpenFeign" or should I change tack and use OpenCMIS API instead?

I looked in several of alfresco-java-rest-api-spring-boot-starter jars and find no code. So what Dark Majik is spring doing to bootstrap anything?

Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

angelborroy — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:34:08 GMT

For a non-Spring-Boot MVC app running in an app server, the simplest and least surprising option is a concrete REST client (OpenAPI-generated or hand-written) or even OpenCMIS, as you said.

Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

arnieHHS — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:36:49 GMT

So, where might the OpenAPI file be? In the Hyland download's site or ... ?

Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

angelborroy — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:46:31 GMT

https://api-explorer.alfresco.com/api-explorer/

Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

arnieHHS — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:18:28 GMT

I created a java stub project for each api (auth, core, discovery, model, search, search-sql, workflow) and have wired them into my application. Each jar's related package name has been added to the @ComponentScan(basePackages=...) annotation. But at deployment time I get:

NoSuchBeanDefinitionException: No qualifying bean of type 'org.alfresco.auth.handler.api.AuthenticationApi' available: expected at least 1 bean which qualifies as autowire candidate. Dependency annotations: {@org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired(required=true)}

Which I'm not surprised as the various injection points are all interfaces.

Again, Spring MVC here, not Spring Boot. Just what is Spring doing via @SpringBootApplication that somehow gives it access to a concrete implementation of the NodesAPI (for example)?

Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

arnieHHS — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 17:29:31 GMT

Found it:

@Configuration
@EnableFeignClients(basePackages = {
"org.alfresco.authentication.handler",
"org.alfresco.core.handler",
"org.alfresco.discovery.handler",
"org.alfresco.governance.core.handler",
"org.alfresco.governance.classification.handler",
"org.alfresco.model.handler",
"org.alfresco.search.handler",
"org.alfresco.search.sql.handler"
})

Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

arnieHHS — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 21:03:19 GMT

So, the published alfresco-core-rest-api.jar and all the others all include io.swagger.configuration which is not allowable when using JDK 9+ (I'm on 17). Which I found at:

https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.alfresco/alfresco-core-rest-api

Are there versions of these libraries with OUT the swagger package?

Re: How to initialize alfresco-core-rest-api from Spring MVC app via @ComponentScan

arnieHHS — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:41:17 GMT

Also, this library needs the following properties set up:

-Dcontent.service.url=https://localhost:8443
-Dcontent.service.path=content
-Dauthentication.service.path=auth

Putting these in a properties file in the root of the JAR, and adding the follow annotation to the top of a configuration class:

@Configuration
@PropertySource("classpath:alfresco.properties")
@Import(FeignAutoConfiguration.class)
@EnableFeignClients(basePackages = {
"org.alfresco.authentication.handler",
"org.alfresco.core.handler",
"org.alfresco.discovery.handler",
"org.alfresco.model.handler",
"org.alfresco.search.handler",
"org.alfresco.search.sql.handler"
})

Does NOT work. No idea why. Had to add them to the server start up, which is not ideal or valid.