aikau upgrade

[vincent-kali]

Hi all,
I'm using Alfresco 5.0.d and I'd like to upgrade aikau to the latest 1.0.44 version.
I've downloaded/compiled it from github, but I don't know the best way to upgrade current aikau version in share.

Could somebody advise on the properly way to upgrade aikau version ?

Thanks,
Vincent

[afaust]

Hello,

the standard way to update Aikau is by simply including the newer JAR with the Share web application, e.g. placing it in /WEB-INF/lib or including it as a dependency in a Maven build. Aikau is set up to automatically use the newer version when more than one version are included.

Regards
Axel

[vincent-kali]

Hi Axel,
This is indeed what is did (replace aikau.jar in share war package). I was wondering if there was a way to update more 'cleanly' using amp package….

Regards,
VIncent

[ddraper]

It's worth noting here that you can't upgrade Aikau like this on 5.0.d because it won't include updates to the Surf framework that are required. It is only possible to upgrade Aikau like this from 5.0.1 onwards.

Regards,
Dave

[afaust]

Dave, just to be sure: The statements in <a href="https://www.alfresco.com/blogs/developer/2015/03/24/why-alfresco-5-0-d-will-be-a-game-changer-for-ui...">your blog entry from March this year</a> that Aikau can be updated in 5.0.d by dropping in a new Aikau JAR no longer apply since too much has changed in Surf now? Is this stated somewhere else (except here) and to wich Aikau versions does this restriction apply?
If this is the case, maybe there should be an update to the blog post to avoid people running into issues when trying to update Aikau on 5.0.d.

[vincent-kali]

I should have read your post before posting this topic. Anyway I did what you described in your blog (dropping in a new Aikau JAR) and I did not detect any issues, but major aikau improvements !
Could you please give us some details about the possible issues ?
Thanks,
VIncent

[vincent-kali]

I understood that Surf Framework was based on freemarker and YUI (nothing to do with Aikau).
Is this correct ?
In this case, what are the possible interactions between surf and aikau ?
Is it planned to replace surf with aikau at the end ?

Thanks for your clarification
Vincent

[afaust]

Hello,

the Surf framework is a view composition framework. By default it includes the capability to write components using server-side scripting (Rhino / JavaScript) and templating (FreeMarker). It is neither based on YUI nor forces the use of it. It does include some tooling for Dojo as well as a JS compressor using a YUI tool.

Aikau is a widget library and testing framework built on top of the Surf framework. It primarily includes the Dojo library / widgets, but also makes use of other frameworks / tools (i.e. jQuery).
Aikau cannot replace Surf. It is intended to help developers build applications on top of the Surf framework. It is also a tool to simplify customization of the Alfresco Share client.
The Alfresco Share client currently primarily uses YUI as its JavaScript library. Aikau is also intended to help gradually move Share away from YUI when new pages are added or existing ones refactored.

Regards
Axel

[ddraper]

Apologies… Axel is completely correct - this will work on 5.0.d… I'd lost track of which release occurred when… so you can't used the Aikau JARs with Enterprise 5.0.0 or Community 5.0.c (or earlier) but you can with 5.0.d Community and 5.0.1 Enterprise.

Thanks for correcting me on this Axel.

[vincent-kali]

Thanks a lot for your clear and comprehensive response !
I confirm that aikau upgrade on 5.0d seems to work perfectly.

Axel, another clarification: I understood that aikau doesn't need templating functionnality anymore (.ftl is only used to load main widgets model).
Am'I correct ?

Vincent