Search for folders by metadata values not from web but from windows application or windows service a

Is there any way to search for folders by metadata values not from web but from windows application or windows service application (developed in c# or VB.NET)?

All documentation and examples are based on web related search techniques, I was not able to figure out how to do it in, for example, windows application, if there is a need to perform some background tasks...

We have folder categories set to have Client/Matter ID and Name and set as searchable. How to search (programmatically from windows application) for such folders by Client ID value that is specified in the folder categories...

I was not able to find a way so far...

If anyone did something like that, your advice would be helpfull.

Andrey Nemiro

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Kyle_Swidrovich

Hello Andrey,

Through a Windows services application, you can still establish web connection and issue HTTP requests.

The RESTful Search API (?func=search) is the API that search development is focusing their efforts on.

There is also a search web service available through Content Web Services, however, it’s a bit tricky to work with.

Regards,

Kyle

Andrey_Nemiro

Hi.

Thank you for your response.

Is there any code sample that I could use to search for folder(s) by specified value in folder's category? (preferably in c# or vb.net - windows app or service).

For example, we have folder with categories specified as ClientID and MatterID - what would be a technique to search for all folders that have category's ClientID = '00001'

Regards,

Andrey Nemiro

Kyle_Swidrovich

Hi Andrey,

I don’t have anything on hand that calls out via HTTP directly.

However, I can help with what the search query would look like.

Your first step would be to determine the names of the search regions representing the “ClientID” and “MatterID” category attributes.

Each category attribute region is of the form “Attr_#_#”.

To find out what the region names are for your category attributes, navigate to the System Object Volume (?func=ll&objtype=148), then Enterprise Data Source Folder, then from the function menu of the Enterprise Search Manager choose “Properties -> Regions”.

This page will give you the Attr_#_# region names you need.

Once you have the region names, you can construct a query.

For example, if ClientID was Attr_1234_3, a search for all folders with ClientID=00001 might be:

“OTSubType”:0 AND “Attr_1234_3”:”00001”

(SubType 0 is a “Folder”)

Cheers,
Kyle

Andrey_Nemiro

Thank you very much, that would help in future, however I am not able even to get results from the query, returned page has nothing to do whith what I searched,

so, basically before I could specify the WHERE condition in the query, I need a way in windows application (vb.net in my example) to get that query properly executed and reading results,

Below is what I tried to do (vb.net windows application, plain form and one button on it with code below), I commented category for now(not sure where to get it, but I will try to find it in future, below, is just attempt to search for any folder from the window application:

Private _urlLiveLinkEXE As String = http://vmserver1-app.vmdom.demo:8080/OTCS/livelink.exe

Private Sub btnTestHttp_Click( ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnTestHttp.Click

Try

Me .Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor

Dim tempCookies As New System.Net.CookieContainer

Dim postReq As System.Net.HttpWebRequest = DirectCast (System.Net.WebRequest.Create(_urlLiveLinkEXE), _

System.Net.HttpWebRequest)

postReq.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials

postReq.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

postReq.Method = "POST"

postReq.KeepAlive = True

postReq.CookieContainer = tempCookies

Dim encoding As New System.Text.UTF8Encoding

Dim postData As String = "?func=search&where1='OTSubType':0" ' AND 'Attr_1234_3':'00001'"

Dim byteData As Byte () = encoding.GetBytes(postData)

postReq.ContentLength = byteData.Length

Dim postReqStream As System.IO.Stream = postReq.GetRequestStream()

postReqStream.Write(byteData, 0, byteData.Length)

postReqStream.Close()

Dim postResponse As System.Net.HttpWebResponse

Try

postResponse = DirectCast (postReq.GetResponse(), System.Net.HttpWebResponse)

Catch ex As Exception

MsgBox(ex.Message)

End Try

Dim postReqReader As New System.IO.StreamReader(postResponse.GetResponseStream())

Dim thePage As String = postReqReader.ReadToEnd

MsgBox( "done" )

Catch ex As Exception

MsgBox(ex.Message)

Finally

Me .Cursor = Cursors.Default

End Try

End Sub

========================================

I also tried to call different function that does not take any parameter, like

"?func=search.gettemplates"

Resulting page from the thePage value returned is the same and looks like that:

Open Text Content Server

Enterprise

Personal

Tools

Help

Top of Form

Search SearchPanel

Advanced Search

Bottom of Form

Kyle_Swidrovich

Hi Andrey,

I see two immediate problems:

<![if !supportLists]>1) <![endif]>You are using single quotation marks around your region names in your where clause instead of double quotation marks.

<![if !supportLists]>2) <![endif]>The ?func=search request, on its own, returns a full Content Server page as a response. If you just want data to parse programmatically, you should be changing the output format by setting the &outputformat parameter.

The possible output formats are outlined in the Search API documentation, as posted on the Knowledge Center.

For example, &outputformat=xml outputs the response as XML.

<![if !supportLists]>3) <![endif]>You do not appear to be attempting to authenticate first to obtain your LLCookie cookie, which you will need in order to send any Search API request to Content Server.

Regards,

Kyle

Andrey_Nemiro

Thank you.

I understand regarding &outputformat=xml

Regarding "authenticate" I searched:

\_AndreyNemiro\CompliGuardProtectRelated\OT_ContentSvc\OT_Metadata Services API_Programming\ProgrammingGuideHTML\llessrc-pgd-en\_manual.htm

and did not find any method except adding &userlogin=**** parameter to the search function, can you give me an example with authenticate method with writing in cookie?

Regards

Andrey Nemiro

Kyle_Swidrovich

Hi Andrey,

We do not have a RESTful API for standard Content Server authentication in core product.

You will need to POST credentials to the standard Content Server login page and obtain the LLCookie from the response.

Regards,

Kyle

Andrey_Nemiro

Thank you.

So, how can I do that programmatically? (how to post credentials and obtain mentioned cookie?)

Just want to let you know - I am new to the Open Text api programming. We were given VM image with Content Server environment, that we can use to develop our processing...

When opening Web UI to check folder categories, I was instructed to use:

http://vmserver1-app.vmdom.demo:8080/OTCS/livelink.exe?func=ll&objId=127731&objAction=browse&sort=name

First it asks for windows credentials, after that, web login page opened, so, it asks credentials 2 times (windows credentials are different from the ones I enter on the web page)

Regards

Andrey Nemiro

Kyle_Swidrovich

Hi Andrey,

If you’re being prompted for Windows credentials then your virtual directory probably isn’t set up correctly to allow for anonymous authentication (unless you’re trying to get setup for SSO auth).

The form you’ll need to POST with your application is the one seen in the source of that web login page.

As for how to issue an HTTP POST via .NET, I can’t help you there (sorry).

I’d suggest checking online .NET forums.

Cheers,

Kyle

Andrey_Nemiro

In any case, I'd like to thank you very much for trying with helping me.

Thank You.

Andrey Nemiro

Bobby_Brimm

If you find an answer to the cookie issue, would you please post it here? I am trying to call custom request handlers in a custom module and I'm having the same issue!

Thanks!

Bobby