Structured content

[legba]

Hi all,
I need to store in the repository a "structured content". By "structured content" I mean a document that has different components. Let me clarify this with an example: let's say that the document represents and article, this means it has, for example, a title, an abstract, a body, an image and a list of links to some related articles.

Please note that the compoments are different from properties and aspects. In my example the properties could be: author, category, date, etc., while the aspects could be: date approved, apporved by, start date of validity, end date of validity.

I checked in the documentation and examples and realized that I can define a custom content type and configure properties and aspects for the content. The properties and aspects are automatically handled in the content creation wizard.

Is there a way to define the "components" of a structured content?

How this content (and its sub components) can be handled by the content management wizard in the web client?

I started trying to define a new model and a custom content type, but I realized that I need to extend cm:content in order for my content type to be handled by the web client. This way I cannot (can I?) define the structure for my custom content.

I am somewhat stuck…

Any pointers?

Thanks in advance.

[rivetlogic]

Let me see if I understood you correctly: You're trying to get three things done:
1. You're trying to create a new content type for compound documents where a single content item will contain multiple contents (image, doc file, etc.)
2. You need a set of custom meta-data to be associated with your content items
3. You'd like the Web Client and its wizards to handle your custom types

If so, then you seem to be on the right track for 1 & 2. For 1, you'll need to define a new content type that inherits from cm:content and extends it to have properties of type d:content that will be used to store additional contents (this can also be done with custom aspects). As for 2, you can define other properties as you would normally (types/aspects).

The problem is part 3, as you've indicated. For 3, you'll need to modify the Web Client to handle your new content type. A great place to start is to look at forums and how the model and UI were extended to handle those content items and render them differently.

Some of the things to check out are:
forumsModel.xml, faces-config-navigation.xml, web-client-config-navigation.xml, and the forums JSPs.

Going through that code will show you how the UI was extended to handle forums, forum spaces, and posts.

Good luck.

–Sumer

[legba]

Sumer,
thanks for your kind answer.

You understood me perfectly.
I like the idea of a new conent type with d:content properties, and the pointer to the forum "extension".

I suppose I can follow the hints for [url=http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Adding_a_Custom_Dialog']Adding a custom dialog[/url] and [url=http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Packaging_And_Deploying_Extensions]Packaging and deploying extensions[/url] to figure out how to successfully modify the web client.

I'll get back in touch if I have more doubts or to share my experience.

Bye,

Fabio