Content Modeling when developing application in Alfresco ECM

When developing applications, you start with a stage of analysis-design that allows modeling the structure of the database that you application will use.
So why not do something similar when developing applications on Alfresco ECM?.

What makes Alfresco ECM a powerful tool is the ability to do content modeling. If you do not that, would not make much sense to use Alfresco ECM and instead should use any file-system such as WebDAV, FTP, NFS, etc.

The content model in Alfresco ECM allows us to identify types of documents, properties and their relationships existing in our organization/business.

This post will explain how to modeling the content that our type of organization/business requires and also explains how to deploy it on an installation of Alfresco ECM.

I. XML definition files

Create the following files:

1. intix-model-context.xml

This is Spring file configuration for the new content model.

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<!DOCTYPE beans PUBLIC '-//SPRING//DTD BEAN//EN' 'http://www.springframework.org/dtd/spring-beans.dtd'>
<beans>
	<!-- Registration of new models -->
	<bean id="intix.dictionaryBootstrap" 
		  parent="dictionaryModelBootstrap" 
		  depends-on="dictionaryBootstrap">
		<property name="models">
			<list>
				<value>alfresco/extension/intixModel.xml</value>
			</list>
		</property>
	</bean>
</beans>

2. intixModel.xml

This xml file contains our custom model.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Definition of new Model -->
<model name="ix:intixmodel" xmlns="http://www.alfresco.org/model/dictionary/1.0">
<!-- Optional meta-data about the model -->
<description>INTIX.info Content Model</description>
<author>Roger Carhuatocto</author>
<version>1.0</version>

<!-- Imports are required to allow references to definitions in other models -->
<imports>
	<import uri="http://www.alfresco.org/model/dictionary/1.0" prefix="d" />
	<import uri="http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0" prefix="cm" />
	<import uri="http://www.alfresco.org/model/system/1.0" prefix="sys" />
</imports>

<!-- Introduction of new namespaces defined by this model -->
<namespaces>
	<namespace uri="http://www.intix.info/model/content/1.0" prefix="ix" />
</namespaces>

<constraints>
	<constraint name="ix:projectList" type="LIST">
		<parameter name="allowedValues">
			<list>
			<value>Foo Project</value>
			<value>Bar Project</value>
			<value>Acme Project</value>
			</list>
		</parameter>
	</constraint>
</constraints>

<types>
	<!-- Enterprise-wide generic document type -->
	<type name="ix:doc">
		<title>INTIX.info Document</title>
		<parent>cm:content</parent>
		<associations>
			<association name="ix:relatedDocuments">
			<title>INTIX.info Related Documents</title>
			<source>
				<mandatory>false</mandatory>
				<many>true</many>
			</source>
			<target>
				<class>ix:doc</class>
				<mandatory>false</mandatory>
				<many>true</many>
			</target>
			</association>
		</associations>
		<mandatory-aspects>
			<aspect>cm:generalclassifiable</aspect>
		</mandatory-aspects>
	</type>
	
	<type name="ix:legalDoc">
		<title>INTIX.info Legal Document</title>
		<parent>ix:doc</parent>
	</type>
	
	<type name="ix:fld">
		<title>INTIX.info Folder Document</title>
		<parent>cm:folder</parent>
		<associations>
			<association name="ix:relatedFolder2Docs">
			<title>INTIX.info Documents Related to Folder</title>
			<source>
				<mandatory>false</mandatory>
				<many>true</many>
			</source>
			<target>
				<class>ix:doc</class>
				<mandatory>false</mandatory>
				<many>true</many>
			</target>
			</association>
		</associations>
	</type>
	
	<type name="ix:marketingDoc">
		<title>INTIX.info Marketing Document</title>
		<parent>ix:doc</parent>
		<properties>
			<property name="ix:project">
			<type>d:text</type>
			<multiple>true</multiple>
			<constraints>
				<constraint ref="ix:projectList" />
			</constraints>
			</property>
		</properties>
	</type>
</types>
</model>

3. web-client-config-custom.xml

This configuration file enables Alfresco Explore/Web Client to load the new content model in the Alfresco UI.

<alfresco-config>
	<!-- show related documents association on doc property sheet -->
	<config evaluator="node-type" condition="ix:doc">
		<property-sheet>
			<show-association name="ix:relatedDocuments" />
		</property-sheet>
	</config>
	<!-- show related documents association on FOLDER property sheet -->
	<config evaluator="node-type" condition="ix:fld">
		<property-sheet>
			<show-association name="ix:relatedFolder2Docs" />
		</property-sheet>
	</config>
	<!-- show PROJECT on marketingDoc property sheet -->
	<config evaluator="node-type" condition="ix:marketingDoc">
		<property-sheet>
			<show-property name="ix:project" display-label-id="project" />
		</property-sheet>
	</config>
	<!-- show related documents association on DOC property sheet -->
	<config evaluator="node-type" condition="ix:doc">
		<property-sheet>
			<show-association name="ix:relatedDocuments" />
		</property-sheet>
	</config>
	<!-- add NEW CONTENT types to add content list wizard -->
	<config evaluator="string-compare" condition="Content Wizards">
		<content-types>
			<type name="ix:doc" />
			<type name="ix:legalDoc" />
			<type name="ix:marketingDoc" />
		</content-types>
	</config>
	<!-- add new FOLDER types to add content list wizard -->
	<config evaluator="string-compare" condition="Space Wizards">
		<folder-types>
			<type name="ix:fld" />
		</folder-types>
	</config>
	<config evaluator="string-compare" condition="Action Wizards">
		<!-- The list of types shown in the is-subtype condition -->
		<subtypes>
			<type name="ix:doc" />
			<type name="ix:legalDoc" />
			<type name="ix:marketingDoc" />
		</subtypes>
		<!-- The list of content and/or folder types shown in the specialise-type action -->
		<specialise-types>
			<type name="ix:doc" />
			<type name="ix:legalDoc" />
			<type name="ix:marketingDoc" />
			<type name="ix:fld" />
		</specialise-types>
	</config>
	<config evaluator="string-compare" condition="Advanced Search">
		<advanced-search>
			<content-types>
			<type name="ix:doc" />
			<type name="ix:legalDoc" />
			<type name="ix:marketingDoc" />
			<type name="ix:fld" />
			</content-types>
		</advanced-search>
	</config>
</alfresco-config>

II. Deploy the content model

1. Stop Alfresco.

2. Copy intix-model-context.xml to ${ALFRESCO_HOME}\tomcat\shared\classes\alfresco\extension

3. Copy intixModel.xml to ${ALFRESCO_HOME}\tomcat\shared\classes\alfresco\extension

4. At this point, you will still not actually can not “see” the new custom model on the Alfresco UI (Alfresco Explorer/Web Client).
For that, you will need to set up the property dialogs for each of the content types.

Then, copy web-client-config-custom.xml to ${ALFRESCO_HOME}\tomcat\shared\classes\alfresco\extension

5. Start Alfresco.

6. Verify successfully deployment of new content model by browsing on Alfresco Explorer/Web Client.

7. End.