How suitable is SURF for a custom WebClient UI

[kmartino]

Hello,

We are investigating using SURF to develop a new editorial interface for Alfresco WCM on version 3.2 Community (hopefully will be applicable to Enterprise). 

The hope is that our SURF web app can communicate with Alfresco via WebScripts and retrieve custom forms defined with XSDs within the WCM.  The SURF webapp will then be used as the launchpad for an AIR client that will provide additional UI functionality. The goal of using the XSDs is to avoid having to recode any business rules around the forms we are building. 

Editors <–> AIR <–> SURF <–> Alfresco (XSDs, WebScripts, Authentication, etc).

Before I go too far down that road - can SURF utilize XSDs defined in Alfresco WCM?

Thank you,

Karl

[pmonks]

In broad terms this is where Alfresco is heading, so you may be able to take a "wait and see" approach, depending on your timelines.

The Forms Service (http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Forms) is superceding both DM property sheets and WCM Web Forms, and that functionality is in Share as of Alfresco 3.2.  Alfresco 3.3 has a major focus on moving most of the WCM content authoring capabilities from the old JSF client to a combination of Web Studio (web developers) and Share (form based content entry for non-technical authors), and the Forms Service is a key part of that strategy.

Cheers,
Peter

[kmartino]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the reply. 

When you say that SURF's Form Service is "superceding both DM property sheets and WCM Web Forms" - does that mean it will be used instead of WCM's XSDs ? 

So if we were to act now, instead of:

Editors <–> AIR <–> SURF <–> Alfresco (WCM XSDs, WebScripts, Authentication, etc).

It would resemble:

Editors <–> AIR <–> SURF Forms Service <–> Alfresco (WebScripts, Authentication, etc).

But in a future state of Alfresco, XSDs defined in the WCM *can* be reused in SURF ?

And this is because form definitions are not currently reusable between WCM and SURF's Forms Service?

Sorry to be slightly confused about how these pieces interrelate.  

Thanks,

Karl

[pmonks]

The Forms Service is primarily a UI framework - it's intended to be agnostic to how the form itself is defined.  In other words the Forms Service could be provided form definitions that are sourced from virtually anywhere.  As a point of interest, the specific WCM XSD case is mentioned in the roadmap section of the Forms wiki page (see http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Forms#Forms_Roadmap).

So to answer your questions:

When you say that SURF's Form Service is "superceding both DM property sheets and WCM Web Forms" - does that mean it will be used instead of WCM's XSDs ?

The current thinking is that for WCM, the Forms Service will replace Web Forms, but will still obtain the form definitions from XSD files.

But in a future state of Alfresco, XSDs defined in the WCM *can* be reused in SURF ?

That is the current plan yes, although additional metadata / annotations (TBD) around the "Web Form" will likely be required (since the Forms Service is more sophisticated than Web Forms were).

And this is because form definitions are not currently reusable between WCM and SURF's Forms Service?

Form definitions have never been reusable between DM and WCM, and the Forms Service won't change that.  Instead the Forms Service introduces an intermediate form definition language and DM (property sheet) and WCM (XSD) "forms" will be converted to that language on the fly (via dedicated translators).  As of 3.2 the only translator available is for an enhanced version of the DM property sheet form language, but as mentioned in the roadmap the intention is to add support for XSDs as well (likely in Alfresco 3.3).

Cheers,
Peter

[kmartino]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the reply and information.  It sounds like for our project's velocity needs, our plan will probably resemble building two iterations:

1: an editorial UI that interfaces with Alfresco via Webscripts

2: when the forms engine and WCM use the same form definition format, we will work in a middleware tier built in SURF, that runs between our editorial UI and Alfresco WCM that takes advantage of that. 

Thanks,

Karl

[kmartino]

Let me re-word the previous a bit…

If you:

1: needed to create a new editorial UI experience
2: wanted to leverage WCM's capabilities
3: were trying to future-proof your implementation the best you could
4:  were trying to avoiding duplication of business logic between tiers

Would you create a SURF based app and it's Forms Engine to interact with a Alfresco WCM instance?  Is adding capabilities to a Share-based a viable route?

Sorry if this is just a variant on the previous queries.  We're trying to outline our editorial UI architecture and are about to gear up on a project.

Thanks,

Karl

[deas0815]

Hi Peter, hi Karl,

I was (and am still) facing requirements quite similiar to the ones Karl is dealing with.

I coded some extensions so I can select webform generated xml in web studio and
process a freemarker NodeListModel in the view. Not perfect of course, but at the
time I did this, I was aware of FormsService coming and hence decided to "wait and see".

@Peter: Looking at HEAD sources it seems records management has major development
focus today. Can you make a rough guess when Alfresco 3.3 will be released ?

regards
Andreas