Smart Spaces

[eli_lindner]

Hi all,

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I wasn't able to find any similar topics.
What I'd like to know if it is possible either out of the box, or with customization to create "smart" views of other spaces.
The idea being similar to OS X smart folders, I'd like to have a space that only shows content (and sub-spaces) from another space that has a certain aspects applied to it.


Thanks for any help.

[zaizi]

Yes. Get the Alfresco 2.9 Beta version (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=143373&package_id=157460&release_id=560427) and check out the Calendar within Project Space.

Events are created as files within a sub space called CalEvents (or something similar). The Calendar space uses a custom view to call web scripts which grab all the relevant events.

Basically using custom views or using custom views to call web scripts you can get content from other spaces and render as you like. You can use lucene search from within custom views or web scripts.

Custom views use Freemarker. More info http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/FreeMarker_Template_Cookbook#Search_Examples

Web scritpts use Java script. More info http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/JavaScript_API

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[eli_lindner]

Just the kind of hint I was looking for.

Thanks.

[fx3000se]

I am evaluating Alfresco 3c Labs and wonder whether there is something equal to the "Calendar within Project Space"?

Thx
Clemens

[zaizi]

The Calender component has been completely rewritten. It is now available within Alfresco's Share client.

[fx3000se]

Dear zaizi
thanks for the reply. I am not really interested in the calendar per se, but in "smart folders" as initially requests by eli.lindner.

Is there no possibility to add kind of a (lucene) filter to a (read only) space which looks up all the other spaces applying the filter?

Thx
Clemens

[zaizi]

Smart folders are possible. You can save searches in the data dictionary. You can extend folder to display the results of the search as children.

Will require updating few of alfresco services to make this work. But is possible.

As a hack you can just use custom view for spaces to display the search results, similar to the calendar implementation. This will only work in the Alfresco Explorer client (aka JSF client).

[fx3000se]

Dear zaizi,
could you be a bit more precise?

You can save searches in the data dictionary.

how are searches defined and saved?

You can extend folder to display the results of the search as children.

how is this achieved?

Will require updating few of alfresco services to make this work. But is possible.

what exactly needs to be done?

As a hack you can just use custom view for spaces to display the search results, similar to the calendar implementation. This will only work in the Alfresco Explorer client (aka JSF client).

is there a tutorial which describes this?

Thx Clemens

[zaizi]

When you search for content using the Alfresco Explorer client (using either the basic search or advanced search), on the search results page top right under "More Actions", lets you save the search. You can reload the search criteria and re-run the query using the Advanced Search UI. The search criteria are saved in the Data Dictionary. You should be able to leverage this functionality to provide the search / filtering for Smart spaces.

You should be able to configure custom view templates to call specific saved searches using web scripts. More info on this at http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Template_Guide.

With regards to getting this to work "correctly" through the web client and CIFS, will need further investigation. Initial thoughts you can associate a custom behaviour to bind to the onContentRead policy.

[fx3000se]

Where do I find the template for the calendar, or any other template which makes use of a saved search to show the results of the search in the space?