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Programmatically created static file, how to publish

Anita_Barabe

Hi everyone,

To resolve one of our business requirements, I have this idea of creating a Content Type Definition that has the application metadata, upon saving its content item, a listener will create a html file as a static file. Being the static programmatically created, does this gets published/unpublished together with its CI?.

We have a similar implementation on wrapping the jpg file with CTD, but on the CIF we use the content select CCE that I think it is doing all the connections. I am not sure if a assest that is programmatically created throught a listener would be as transparent when publishing/unpublishing. Can anyone please shed some light? We are using VCM 7.6.

Thank you in advance!

-Anita Barabe

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David_Stiles

Being programmatically created doesn’tmake any difference. After all, the console is programmatically creating staticfiles when you do it that way. But you did touch on the key element, which isthat the CI you’re creating the SF from does need to reference the SF andwhich is what is happening when you use the content select widget. In thatcase, the widget, when assigned to the CT attribute, has created a reference definitionin the CT, and then when editing instances of the CT, the widget is populatingthe reference attribute with the id of the selected other item. You need to dosomething similar. Typically this would all be done by using the File widgetfor selecting referenced SFs when editing the CI, but since you want toprogrammatically create the SF at the time the CI is persisted then you’llneed to do something different. If there’s not one available somewhere,then you might consider building a custom File widget that can be hidden (orperhaps the OOTB one can be hidden – I don’t recall) but whichwould otherwise do the same thing. The main purpose in doing this would be tohave the widget manage creating the reference definition in the CT for you. Otherwise,you might just assign the File widget to your CT to get the referencedefinition created for you, and then modify the attribute’s widgetsettings (either programmatically or through import/export) to have theattribute use the Hidden widget. Then when you create your SF you would justpopulate the CI’s attribute with the placement path of the SF.

There are quite a few details to gettingthis set up correctly (assuming I’m understanding your intentionscorrectly) and I’ve rushed through explaining a lot of this because I’mnot sure how much detail you really need. But let us know what you need furtherexplanation on.

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Subject: Programmatically createdstatic file, how to publish

Programmatically created static file, how to publish

Posted by abarabe@behr.com (Barabe, Anita) On 2010/04/22 14:53

Hi everyone,

Thank you in advance!

-Anita Barabe

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Anita_Barabe

Thank you David for your quick reply.

I am not familiar with creating custom widgets, so I was a bit lost on the last part of the explanation. Can I achieve the same by using the Hidden CCE widget? In this case, the listener implementation would create the file as a SF, and then populate the Hidden CCE's attribute with the new SF GUID, instead of the path to the file.

Thank you again.

-Anita

David_Stiles

The key to making this work is to get anappropriate reference definition added to your CT. This is typically done byadding a particular type of widget to an attribute in the CT, but that’snot the only way. I’m not familiar with the Hidden CCE widget, but myguess is that it’s not a widget that would do this for you. Also, otherwidgets that will do this for you will not be hidden, and it seems you probablydo still want the attribute to be hidden and not editable by console users. So(assuming I’m correct about the Hidden CCE widget) then here’s whatI think would be the easiest and least error prone approach to getting your CTwhere you need it to be.

<![if !supportLists]>- <![endif]>Create/modifythe CT as you need it to be with the exception of the attribute that will referto the SF.

<![if !supportLists]>- <![endif]>Assignthe General Selection List widget to the attribute that will refer to the SF. I’msuggesting you use the GSL widget because you said you want the reference tothe SF to be by GUID. The GSL widget will generate the appropriate referencedefinition on the CT.

<![if !supportLists]>- <![endif]>Once you’vecreated the CT in this way then export the CT using vgnexport.

<![if !supportLists]>- <![endif]>Createanother dummy/temporary CT with a single extensible attribute and assign theHidden (or Hidden CCE) widget to the attribute. Since you will be managing thereferences to the SFs yourself, I suspect the basic Hidden widget will sufficefor your needs here.

<![if !supportLists]>- <![endif]>Exportthe dummy/temporary CT with vgnexport.

<![if !supportLists]>- <![endif]>Open thepackage files for both exports to edit the XML and copy the widget settingsfrom the attribute using the Hidden widget to the attribute using the GSLwidget and save the XML back to the package file. The XML elements you’llneed to copy are <widgetName> and <widgetData>. Leave all other XMLas is. The purpose in doing this is to change the widget used by the SFreference attribute without changing the CT structure (i.e. the referencedefinition) that was introduced by the GSL widget.

<![if !supportLists]>- <![endif]>Once you’vemodified the XML for your CT then import the package file back into the VCMusing vgnimport. You can also delete the dummy/temporary CT at this point.

<![if !supportLists]>- <![endif]>Now yourCT should be configured as you need it and you can implement a listener tocreate the SF and populate the SF reference attribute of instances of the CT. Isuggest you do this with a pre-persistence listener that listens for create andupdate events on instances of the CT. The listener would generate a SF based ondata set on a given CI and then use the content management id of the created SFto populate the SF reference attribute of the CI. By doing this inpre-persistence you wont need to call commit() on the CI after setting theattribute value. In the case of update on a CI you might just update the filecontents portion of an existing SF already referenced by the CI. And on deleteof the CI you might want to delete the SF that is referenced by the CI.

Let me know if you still have questions.

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Subject: RE Programmaticallycreated static file, how to publish

RE Programmatically created static file, how to publish

Posted by abarabe@behr.com (Barabe, Anita) On 2010/04/22 21:44

Thank you David for your quick reply.

Thank you again.

-Anita

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Topic:	Programmatically created static file, how to publish
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Anita_Barabe

Yes, your assumption is correct. The creation of the SF should be transparent to the user and based on the metadata input to the CI. I'll try this out and let you know.

Thank you very much David for such a detailed explanation!

Anita_Barabe

Hi,

I followed the steps to model the CTD, the CI's pre-persistence listener kicked in and created the static File. After associating the CI to a channel, I tried to publish it.. The CI gets published but the SF didn't. Any hints?

In trying to understand what I may have missing, I also created a separate CTD with a file select and content select widgets both visible to the CIF..I created and saved the CI without entering any values to the widgets, but using the listeners I set the corresponding attributes in the CI with the file path. Same problem, the publishing failed for the files.. It looks like there is more to it than configure the widget into the CTD and assign the right value back to the CT's attribute for the VCM to relate the CI and the static asset for publishing.. I was also looking into the CCE apis documentation.. is there a way to programmatically set the file on the widget?

Thank you in advance!

-AB

Anita_Barabe

Just wanted to point to my previous post with a question sign..

David_Stiles

There isn’t more to it, but as yousaid, you have to put the correct value(s) in the CI’s attribute(s). Whenyou say file path, what exactly do you mean? Are you storing the file’splacement path there? Can you provide an example of the value you used?

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Subject: RE RE Programmaticallycreated static file, how to publish 2

RE RE Programmatically created static file, how to publish 2

Posted by abarabe@behr.com (Barabe, Anita) On 2010/08/11 13:39

Hi,

Thank you in a! dvance!

-AB

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Topic:	Programmatically created static file, how to publish
Forum:	Vignette V7 and V8 Web Content Management
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Anita_Barabe

Yes, for the last CTD (No 2), I created it with a File and Content Select widget.. they expect the placement path. For the first CTD (No 1) I assigned the GUID of the static asset object I jusr created. Below is an example of the code in the pre-persistence listener.

if (CTD No 1) {

StaticFile sf = new StaticFile(); ..

... // set methods are called here.

sf.commit();

ci.setAttributeValue ("URL_REDIRECT_GUI", sf.getContentManagementId().getId());

} else (CTD No 2) {

// placement path values are harcoded for this POC

ci.setAttributeValue ("REDIRECT_FILE_PATH", "/some_path/../index.html");

ci.setAttributeValue ("REDIRECT_SELECT_PATH", "/some_path/../index.html");

}

I am using the placement path the same way I would enter throught the widget on the user interface.

Thank you, I appreciate your input.

-AB.

David_Stiles

Can you export the CT with vgnexport andsend the XML from the exported package file?

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RE RE RE Programmatically created static file, how to publish 2

Posted by abarabe@behr.com (Barabe, Anita) On 2010/08/11 15:30

if (CTD No 1) {

StaticFile sf = new StaticFile(); ..

... // set methods are called here.

sf.commit();

ci.setAttributeValue ("URL_REDIRECT_GUI", sf.getContentManagementId().getId());

} else (CTD No 2) {

// placement path values are harcoded for this POC

ci.setAttributeValue ("REDIRECT_FILE_PATH", "/some_path/../index.html");<! /p>

ci.setAttributeValue ("REDIRECT_SELECT_PATH", "/some_path/../index.html");

}

I am using the placement path the same way I would enter throught the widget on the user interface.

Thank you, I appreciate your input.

-AB.

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Topic:	Programmatically created static file, how to publish
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Anita_Barabe

Sure, I am attaching both CTDs. Please let me know if you need anything else.

Thanks,

-AB

packageBody_poc.xml

Anita_Barabe

Here is the zip in case you need it.

dev__0811_0222.zip

David_Stiles

I don’t see anything obviously wrongwith the CTs. I should have asked for this with the CTs, but could you nowexport one of the CIs after the listener has processed it. If you could, I’dlike to see the package file that gets generated when you explicitly exportjust the one CI by id. Another thing you might include if possible is the listenercode used to form the reference between the CI and SF.

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RE RE RE RE Programmatically created static file, how to publish 2

Posted by abarabe@behr.com (Barabe, Anita) On 2010/08/11 17:26

Sure, I am attaching both CTDs. Please let me know if you need anything else.

Thanks,

-AB

Attachment Links:

packageBody_poc.xml (16 KB)

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Anita_Barabe

Sure, attached is the zip of a CI just created. When you open the zip you'll see that the static file is not include in the export.

Because I need to meet a deadline tomorrow for this POC, I am exploring the idea of manually publishing the SF.

Thanks,

-AB

dev__0812_0112.zip

poc_code.txt

Anita_Barabe

OK, instead of relying on the CI to publish the SF, I tried to capture the publish event of the CI throught the listener (post-persistence update), what happens is that the event is thrown when the CI status changes to "stale" but not when the status changes to "published".

I thought you may want to know this.

-AB

David_Stiles

I’m confused. I thought you werehaving trouble with the case where the CI refers to the SF by placement path. Butthe export you included here contains a CI that references by GUID and notplacement path.

Regardless, the problem with the GUID referenceis simple. There is no reference definition in your CT for the URL_REDIRECT_GUIDattribute. And that attribute only has the hidden widget assigned to it. Use ofthe hidden widget alone isn’t going to be a problem, but assigning thatwidget to the attribute is not going to cause the necessary referencedefinition to be created on the CT. The reference definition is needed in orderfor the VCM to understand that it must interpret that attribute as containingreference values. Without the VCM having this knowledge it will only ever seethe attribute value as a random string value and never interpret the value as areference value for the sake of publishing or exporting the referenced content.

You originally said there was a problemwith the reference by placement path and looking at the CT with the REDIRECT_FILE_PATHattribute that contains the file widget, there is a reference definitionspecified for that attribute. So if there is a problem with that type ofreference then it’s currently still a mystery. Trying to diagnose whatthe problem is here I was hoping to see an export of one of the CIs of thisspecific CT so I could examine the attribute values for it (as well as see ifthe referenced SF got included in the package file).

Also, looking at the code you sent, I’mwondering why in one case you’re actually creating a SF, but in the othercase you don’t. The case where you don’t create the SF only setsthe reference value on the CI, which is fine, but only if the SF already existsin that case.

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RE RE RE RE RE Programmatically created static file, how to publish 2

Posted by abarabe@behr.com (Barabe, Anita) On 2010/08/12 16:20

Sure, attached is the zip of a CI just created. When you open the zip you'll see that the static file is not include in the export.

Because I need to meet a deadline tomorrow for this POC, I am exploring the idea of manually publishing the SF.

Thanks,

-AB

Attachment Links:

dev__0812_0112.zip (3 KB)

poc_code.txt (2 KB)

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David_Stiles

Well, this is a misguided approach. Thesystem doesn’t work the way you’re expecting. There are no eventsfired in the management stage when an object is published. In the case ofpublishing, only deployment events fire (not persistence events) and thedeployment events fire in the DA of the stage an object is being deployed to.

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RE RE RE RE RE Programmatically created static file, how to publish 2 2

Posted by abarabe@behr.com (Barabe, Anita) On 2010/08/12 20:55

I thought you may want to know this.

-AB

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