Adding metadata to an existing document in Livelink

Hi,

I have checked the discussion forum but i do not think i found an answer to my question. Is there a way to update the metadata of a specific document in livelink?

I am using node.setMetadata(metadata) but that is not propagating the updates to livelink. I am thinking i need to use some method within the the docman service but i am not finding any ?

PS: the document is already in livelink, so i can't use the uploadcontent with a context.

Thanks

Amir

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sgrasley

Hi, Amir.

Have you tried calling DocumentManagement's UpdateNode method? I think that's the one you're looking for.

Thanks,

Scott

amir333

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the quick response but that did not work.

I update the node object prior to passing it to docMan.updateNode but it did not work.

My problem is as follows:

I have copy a document in livelink to another location and once copied update its metadata. I basically think there are two ways of doing this:

1. do a docMan.copyNode, (some how update the metadata for the copied node)

2. download the source node using content service and then use uploadContent (since i can pass in a metadata object).

I am sure there must be another way of doing it rather than using option 2. I am trying to make option 1 works?

What do you think?

Amir

sgrasley

Hi, Amir.

DocumentManagement's UpdateNode should update Metadata as well. Could you please elaborate on how it's not working? Can you send a code excerpt?

Thanks,

Scott

amir333

Hi Scott,

Here is the excerpt:

I basically created a method (called updateMetadata) that creates and set the values of my attributes and return me a Metadata object. I then set the metadata in the destination node and call update afterwards.

Please let me know if you need more details.

Thanks

Amir

...

//copy the source node to its destinationdestNode = docMan.copyNode(sourceNode.getID(), destNodeParentID, destNodeName, nodeCopyOptions) ;

// generate a metadata object and populate the attribute valuesMetadata updatedMetadata = updateMetadataValues(destNode, metadata) ;// set the new metadata to the destination node destNode.setMetadata(updatedMetadata) ;

// update the node on the server with the updated metadatadocMan.updateNode(destNode) ;

sgrasley

Hi, Amir.

What are you trying to update in the metadata? I think you would have better luck if you manipulated the Metadata object returned by destNode.getMetadata(). How are you constructing the Metadata object?

Thanks,

Scott

amir333

Hi Scott,

I pass in a HashMap of the values of the attributes to the updateMetadata method. i then create a new metadata object and return it.

here is the method:

private Metadata updateMetadataValues(Node nodee, HashMap<String, HashMap<String, Object>> metadata) throws Exception {

		Metadata updatedMetadata = null ;		HashMap<String, Object> attributeValues = null ;		String currCategoryName = null, currAttributeName = null ;

		updatedMetadata = node.getMetadata() ;

		List<AttributeGroup> attributeGroups = updatedMetadata.getAttributeGroups() ;

		// go through all the categories and match them to the hashmap metadata to retrieve attribute values		for (AttributeGroup currAttribGroup: attributeGroups) {			// get the display name of the current attribute

			currCategoryName = currAttribGroup.getDisplayName() ;

			attributeValues = metadata.get(currCategoryName) ;

			// some categories are defaulted to some values so skip them

			if (attributeValues  == null) {

				continue ;

			// set the value of each attribute

			for (DataValue currDataValue: currAttribGroup.getValues()) {

				currAttributeName = currDataValue.getDescription() ;

				// some attributes are not mandatory and so won't be in the metadata object coming from eds

				// for those attributes, do not include a value

				if (attributeValues.containsKey(currAttributeName)) {

					if (currDataValue instanceof StringValue) {

						// find the value for the current attribute

						String currAttributeValue = (String)attributeValues.get(currAttributeName) ;

						// if we are here , then this is a mandatory category and if a value is missing

						// then it will fail the upload, so fail gracefully here

						if (currAttributeValue == null)

							logAndThrowException("Missing attribute value for: " + currAttributeName) ;

						StringValue strValue = (StringValue)currDataValue ;

						if (strValue.getValues() != null && strValue.getValues().size() > 0)

							strValue.getValues().set(0, currAttributeValue) ;

						else

							strValue.getValues().add(currAttributeValue) ;

					else if (currDataValue instanceof DateValue) {

						// find the value for the current attribute

						Date currAttributeValue = (Date)attributeValues.get(currAttributeName) ;

						// if we are here , then this is a mandatory category and if a value is missing

						// then it will fail the upload, so fail gracefully here

						if (currAttributeValue == null)

							logAndThrowException("Missing attribute value for: " + currAttributeName) ;

						DateValue dateValue = (DateValue)currDataValue ;

						GregorianCalendar gregCalendar = new GregorianCalendar() ;

					    gregCalendar.setTime(currAttributeValue) ;

					    XMLGregorianCalendar date2 = WebServiceUtil.getCalendar(gregCalendar) ;

					    if (dateValue.getValues() != null && dateValue.getValues().size() > 0)

					    	dateValue.getValues().set(0, date2) ;

					    else

					    	dateValue.getValues().add(date2) ;

		return updatedMetadata;

sgrasley

The attributeGroups list is going to be empty because you've instantiated a new Metadata object, so your method is just going to return an empty Metadata object as far as I can tell.

Are you trying to add a Category to the document? Are you trying to update values for an existing Category?

Scott

amir333

Hi Scott,

Actually the updateMetadataValues returns an updated Metadata object (i.e. it is not empty). The code is getting the metadata object from the node(

updatedMetadata = node.getMetadata() ;List<AttributeGroup> attributeGroups = updatedMetadata.getAttributeGroups() .

The reason i have this method fro two purposes:

1. i upload documents to Livelink so i pass the metadata object returned by the method above to the contentService.uploadContent method. In this case the uploadConent method manages the assignment of the metadata objects.

2. the second use is: i copy a document from a location in livelink to another location. The copied node has some default metadata. i would like to assign it a new set of metadata. That is when i call updateMetadataValues and then assign the returned object to node.setMetadata(object returned).

The first case is working well. The second case when copying a doc from within livelink to another, metadata is not being set when calling node.setMetadata.

I hope i am not confusing you.

Thanks

amir

sgrasley

Hey, Amir.

Sorry, I misread that somehow. I'm not sure what I was thinking...

From what I can tell, everything should work. You shouldn't even have to call destNode.setMetadata() since you called destNode.getMetadata() to begin with. I'll have to investigate some more.

What type of node are you trying to update? Is it just a document (subtype 144)?

Thanks and sorry for my misunderstanding,

Scott

amir333

Hi Scott,

It happens. No worries man.

The node is type document (a word document).

Thank you for investigating.

Amir

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sgrasley

Amir, are you using the web services deployed under Tomcat or IIS?

Thanks,

Scott

amir333

IIS

sgrasley

Hey, Amir.

Which AttributeSourceType value are you using for your instance of CopyOptions?

thanks,

Scott

amir333

Hi Scott,

I am setting it to AttributeSourceType.ORIGINAL, but i don't want the metadata that metadata. Should i set the metadata to null and then add then set it to the new Metadata object?

// setup the copy options

nodeCopyOptions = new CopyOptions() ;

nodeCopyOptions.setCopyCurrent(true) ;

nodeCopyOptions.setAttrSourceType(AttributeSourceType.ORIGINAL) ;

Thanks, Amir

sgrasley

Hi, Amir.

If you don't want to retain the existing metadata, you can call GetCategoryTemplate to populate an AttributeGroup for you, then update its values and assign it to a new Metadata object (or replace the list of AttributeGroups in the existing Metadata object.

My simple test worked fine for updating a category attribute assigned to a node after copying it.

Thanks,

Scott

amir333

Morning Scott,

I did not realize that there is a second page to this question so i di not see your answer on Friday.

When you say your simple test worked, do you mean node.setMetadata ? do you mind posting your code ?

Thanks

Amir

amir333

Hi Scott,

I got to work.

I had to remove the existing AttributeGroup (if any) and then use the node.getMetadata.getAttributeGroups and add the new attribute groups to it. After that i ran a docman.updateNode and it updated the metadata on the server.

My mistake was: my updateMetadataValues method updates existing attributes values rather than create or add new attributes.

Sorry for the wild chase.

Thanks.

Amir

sgrasley

Thanks for the update, Amir. Glad to hear it's working.

Scott