TransactionService and ServiceRegistry - Spring injection

[sergio]

Hi all.

I need to write a Java package in order to manipulate Alfresco repository objects in custom ways. I am just creating a custom Java package and I want to have a reference to alfresco services (nodeService, …) inside my Java classes, so I am going to direct inject Alfresco beans into my classes. Because I need to manage all the task in a transactional way, I need a reference to TransactionService into my classes. I was thinking about direct injecting a TransactionService bean into my classes, but it failed.

My questions are the following:
1) how to direct inject TransactionService into my classes (if possible)?
2) Instead of TransactionService is it possible to direct inject the ServiceRegistry bean?

I followed the FirstFoundationClient example, but it creates a new ApplicationContext, on the contrary I want to use the ApplicationContext already created during the Alfresco boot.

I tried the write a Java bean and direct inject the TransactionComponent and the AuthenticationComponentImpl beans. My bean has an init() method as the following:

public void init ()
  {

    try {
         transactionService.getUserTransaction().begin();
      } catch (NotSupportedException e) {
         // TODO Auto-generated catch block
         e.printStackTrace();
      } catch (SystemException e) {
         // TODO Auto-generated catch block
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
      this.authenticationService.authenticate("admin", "admin".toCharArray());
  }

It works fine but I would like to know if this is the correct way to go on or not.

Many thanks to all.

Sergio

[rwetherall]

Hi Sergio,

Injecting the ServiceRegistry is a good idea as it gives you easy access to a number of fundamental services.

To inject the service your bean should look something like this …

package com.mystuff;

public MyBean
{
    private ServiceRegistry serviceRegistry;

   public void setServiceRegistry(ServiceRegistry serviceRegistry)
   {
      this.serviceRegistry = serviceRegistry;
   }

   ….

}
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

.. and the associated Spring config for the bean would look something like this …

…
   <bean id="myBean" class="com.mystuff.MyBean">
       <property name="serviceRegitry">
         <ref bean="ServiceRegistry"/>
       </property>
      
      …

    </bean>
…
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

You wouldn't start a user transaction in the init method of bean since is a singleton instance and makes no sense.

Instead start and stop the user transactions in each method.  Use the TransactionUtil class to help with this.

Cheers,
Roy

[sergio]

Many thanks Roy.

Hear from you soon,

Sergio

[sergio]

Hi Roy.

Once I have created a class direct injected with basic Alfresco services, the next step is to be able to use that class as a web service published into Alfresco like any other Alfresco WS.

I tried the following:
1) created a .wsdl file for the class;
2) copied the .class file with its own package into the Alfresco \lib folder;
3) modified the server-config.wsdd Alfresco file including the reference to the new web service;
4) copied the .wsdl file into the \alfresco\wsdl folder;
5) direct injected into the .class file nodeService bean using Spring through a -context.xml file.

The bean is loaded fine, but when I try to call the web service using a client the nodeService - initially correctly loaded - seems to be null and everything goes wrong.

I suppose that when the ws is called by the client, a new instance of the Java class is created, so I am not able to point to the fisrt instance of the Java class initially loaded as a Spring bean. As a consequence, I am not able to use the nodeService (and whatever Alfresco service) via the web service.

This is a big problem for me, and I have no idea how to resolve it. The web service should be able to run inside the same context initially created during the boot of Alfresco. In this way, I would be able to direct inject into my web service whatever parameter I want just only during the Alfresco start-up.

I will appreciate a lot any help.

All the best,

Sergio

[rwetherall]

Hi Sergio,

What have you done about generating you're server side and client stubs from the WSDL?

Once you have the server stubs you can base your web service implementation on them.  I presume this is how you are working?

Cheers,
Roy