Share, Aspects and Advanced Search

[arnieaustin2]

After having problems with the examples found in books and via Google, I browsed through this forum.

So, let me get this straight - we have Aspects, and can create custom forms to edit the properties - but we cannot search for content with these properties because for SOME reason, Advance Search cannot do that. What?!

I'm using the Community Edition, version 4.2c.

If I am wrong, then show me how to do it. I added:

<form labelId="aspect.agy_agencyDocument"
   descriptionId="aspect.agy_agencyDocument.search.description">agy:agencyDocument</form>‍‍

and it shows up in the menu, but when I select the option, I get:

org.alfresco.repo.forms.FormNotFoundException: 01050034 A form could not be found for item: [type]agy:agencyDocument‍

My form definition is:

<config evaluator="model-type" condition="agy_agencyDocument">
   <forms>
      <form id="search">
         <field-visibility>
            <show id="cm:name" />
            <show id="cm:title" force="true" />
            <show id="cm:description" force="true" />
            <show id="mimetype" />
            <show id="cm:modified" />
            <show id="cm:modifier" />
            <show id="agy:agencyId" />
            <show id="agy:agencyBusinessUnit" />
            <show id="agy:agencyDivision" />
         </field-visibility>
      </form>
      <appearance>
         <field id="cm:description">
            <control template="/org/alfresco/components/form/controls/textfield.ftl" />
         </field>
         <field id="mimetype">
            <control template="/org/alfresco/components/form/controls/mimetype.ftl" />
         </field>
         <field id="cm:modified">
            <control template="/org/alfresco/components/form/controls/daterange.ftl" />
         </field>
         <field id="cm:modifier">
            <control>
               <control-param name="forceEditable">true</control-param>
            </control>
         </field>
         <!– agy:agencyDocument –>
         <field id="agy:agencyId" label-id="agy_agencyCommonModel.type.agy_agencyDocument.title">
            <control template="/org/alfresco/components/form/controls/textfield.ftl" />
         </field>
         <!– agy:agencyBusinessUnit –>
         <field id="agy:agencyBusinessUnit" label-id="agy_agencyCommonModel.property.agy_agencyId.title">
            <control template="/org/alfresco/components/form/controls/textfield.ftl" />
         </field>
         <!– agy:agencyDivision –>
         <field id="agy:agencyDivision" label-id="agy_agencyCommonModel.property.agy_agencyDivision.title">
            <control template="/org/alfresco/components/form/controls/textfield.ftl" />
         </field>
      </appearance>
   </forms>
</config>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

[dantuffery]

Is your aspect applied to a type? If so, change the condition to the type

<config evaluator="model-type" condition="my:type">
   <forms>
      <form id="search">
                ….
                ….
                </form>
        </forms>
</config>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Dan

[arnieaustin2]

Uh, no:

<aspects>
   <aspect name="agy:agencyDocument">
      <title>Agency Document</title>
       <description>Agency Document Metadata</description>
       <parent>cm:titled</parent>

<aspect name="oag:matter">
   <title>OAG Matter</title>
   <description>OAG Matter Metadata</description>
   <parent>agy:agencyDocument</parent>

[mitpatoliya]

you can change this

<config evaluator="model-type" condition="agy_agencyDocument">
to this
<config evaluator="model-type" condition="agy:agencyDocument">
‍‍‍‍‍

[arnieaustin2]

I started with that actually. So, is it just not possible?

[afaust]

Hello,

yes, it is currently not possible to setup a search form based <b>just</b> on an aspect. The reason for this is that there is no FormProcessor on the Repository tier that can handle aspect-based forms.
The only way to setup a search form for an aspect is by using

sys:base‍

as your type and providing your aspect properties as filter fields. Unfortunately, if the user does not enter anything in at least on of the filter fields, you will find all nodes that match your search string, as there is no way to tell the search to search for

ASPECT:"prefix:localName"‍

via the form configuration. The only way to change that is by forcing a hidden property value into your nodes and search form that you know is the same for all nodes that have the aspect - that way, there will be an implicit filter on a property only your aspect provides and the search can only find nodes that have it applied.

I used the following approach to define a search just for wiki articles:
1) Setup a content rule / policy, that applies

myPrefix:wikiArticle‍

to any content created in a site ./cm:wiki container
2) Define the aspect with a boolean property

myPrefix:isWikiArticle‍

with default value set to true
3) Setup a search form for

cm:content‍

that includes a hidden field

myPrefix:isWikiArticle‍

with predefined value of true

Regards
Axel

Edit: added code-blocks to prevent smileys on qnames (hopefully)

[arnieaustin2]

Thanks! I can stop wondering/trying about it in the short term. But I was wondering, didn't I do something similar? My notes above didn't come out quite right, my aspects hierarchy is:

<aspect name="agy:agencyDocument">
   <parent>cm:titled</parent>
…
<aspect name="oag:matter">
   <parent>agy:agencyDocument</parent>
‍‍‍‍‍‍

So, am I not part way there already?

I have another related question: so, if I do not provide a search for for users to use initially, but create content and apply my aspect and metadata - either through the edit forms or via code - can I at least search for such content in code? That is a big problem if not.

Lastly, is this a planned fix for the future? Because I really consider it a major lack of functionality.

[arnieaustin2]

Oh, one more thing, when setting up search: should I bother with:

<config>
   <simple-search-additional-attributes>
      <qname>{http://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/model/common/1.0}agencyId</qname>
…
‍‍‍‍‍

?

[arnieaustin2]

So, if I setup a form where

evaluator="model-type" condition="sys:base"‍

on the search form, how do I have a search page for for each my 5 aspects? Like:

<blockcode>
<form labelId="aspect.agy_agencyDocument" descriptionId="aspect.agy_agencyDocument.search.description">sys:base</form>
<form labelId="aspect.agy_accountingDocument" descriptionId="aspect.agy_accountingDocument.search.description">sys:base</form>
<form labelId="aspect.agy_purchasingDocument" descriptionId="aspect.agy_purchasingDocument.search.description">sys:base</form>
<form labelId="aspect.oag_matter" descriptionId="aspect.oag_matter.search.description">sys:base</form>
<form labelId="aspect.ord_itemIdentification" descriptionId="aspect.ord_itemIdentification.search.description">sys:base</form>
</blockcode>

[afaust]

Hello,

1) If possible, I'd advise to avoid aspect type hierarchies, as they can be quite tricky in programmatic evaluation. I.e. if you would execute a

nodeService.hasAspect("cm:titled")‍

on a document with

agy:agencyDocument‍

, you might find yourself surprised it returns "false", since this aspect has not been applied directly. If you want your agency documents to always also have the

cm:titled‍

aspect, you could use it as a default aspect of your custom aspect.
That is not to say that aspect type hierarchies should never be used - I use them quite extensively in some use cases. But they are not always strictly necessary and there are simpler ways of handling aspect inheritence.

2) You can always search for content with aspects in code. The only limitation is in the UI configuration of Share Advanced Search. You can also search for content with aspects as an end user if you know how to write that query and how the aspects are named on a technical level. You can try it yourself by entering

ASPECT:"agy:agencyDocument"‍

in the quick search / keywords input.

3) If you want to have several different types of search forms / pages for your 5 aspects, you need to provide an "id" in the AdvancedSearch config-section, which references a specific form from

evaluator="model-type" condition="sys:base"‍

.
I'll share the configuration I used to get wiki search working:
<blockcode>
    <config evaluator="string-compare" condition="AdvancedSearch">
        <advanced-search>
            <forms>
                <form id="wiki-search" labelId="search.form.label.cm_content.wiki-search" descriptionId="search.form.desc.cm_content.wiki-search">cm:content</form>
            </forms>
        </advanced-search>
    </config>

    <config evaluator="model-type" condition="cm:content">
        <forms>
            <form id="wiki-search">
                <field-visibility>
                    <show id="cm:name" />
                    <show id="cm:modified" />
                    <show id="cm:modifier" />
                    <show id="sthi:wikiContentMarker" force="true" />
                </field-visibility>
                <appearance>
                    <field id="cm:modifier">
                        <control>
                            <control-param name="forceEditable">true</control-param>
                        </control>
                    </field>
                    <field id="cm:modified">
                        <control template="/org/alfresco/components/form/controls/daterange.ftl" />
                    </field>
                    <field id="sthi:wikiContentMarker">
                        <control template="/com/bcc/alfresco/sitehierarchy/components/form/controls/hiddenTrue.ftl" />
                    </field>
                </appearance>
            </form>
        </forms>
    </config>
</blockcode>

Note that I wrote up a small FTL myself to have a hidden field with default value "true" in the search form for the dummy property I've included in my aspect (which is

sthi:wikiContent‍

and doesn't appear anywhere in the configuration at all directly).

Regards
Axel