Metadata Population

[ankur11s]

Hi All,

I am trying to implement a scenario where in business users would be checking in documents to Alfresco DMS via MS-Office or CIFS. While uploading the documents, they should also be able to populate some custom metadata fields like vendor name, contract amount etc. How can this be accomplished while uploading content via Office/CIFS.

Any suggestions/pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[sselvan]

What is the source of metadata, you have in mind?

The way I did recently was -
the user would upload the files at one hand.
After that, the user will have to prepare a csv or tab separated file which will have filename and custom field columns.
Once this metadata file is dropped in a particular space, an action is kickstarted and the import process takes place.

Hope this helps!

[viralshah]

Is there any out of box feature to read the metadata for multiple documents from a csv/tab file or it will have to be custom developed ?

[sselvan]

Unfortunately, there is nothing out-of-the-box. It will have to be custom developed.

[invictus9]

Is there any out of box feature to read the metadata for multiple documents from a csv/tab file or it will have to be custom developed ?

I created a Javascript program to read tsv file with a bunch of metadata. With 18 fields, I needed about 150 lines of code, most of which was field extraction and validation. About 20 lines was working with the NodeService to create nodes with the metadata to attach to.

Things to watch out for:

- Javascript runs on the server side in the Alfresco server. It uses data provided by Alfresco; check out the Javascript API wiki pages.

- You can use the debugger only when it is running on your own machine or a machine on which you have a display. X-Windows should work with some configuration.

- The data model provided is not a Javascript model; it is a Java model. Frequently you have to coerce data into Javascript so that Javascript functions work on things. Strings and undefineds are the worst offenders.

- Logging requires changing the server configuration.

[sselvan]

@ankurs11

Apart from my suggestion above about bulk metadata upload - I am guessing this source project also might be of some help for you -
http://forge.alfresco.com/projects/acpgeneratr/

[moraisdefreitas]

Comrades,

I'm making some adjustments in ACPGeneratr.

1. Change package structure;

2. Using Maven;

3. Implement a structure where you can engage the ACPGeneratr on your own system;

4. Use XStream to generate the xml;

In addition to other settings …

I think by week's end we will have a Beta version to test.