How to? Get selected link > get its metadata > search for dcr's with simular metadata

Livesite 7.1
New to this component thing. I have been to training but it did not cover the java api's that much. So in an external I need a way to get the dcr path of the currently selected link or do I parse it out of RequestContext.getRequest.getPathInfo()? Once I have the DCR path I want to get the metadata on the DCR. Then get a list of DCR's that have the same metadata set on them. The example is a visitor to our site selects a facility link. The facility has metadata of the specialties at the facility. I want to get a list of articles that have the same specialty metadata set on them.

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Comments

vpatel

You could get it the way you just described or you could have a hidden field in the DCR itself that tracks the DCR's path. In any case what you are describing is absolutely doable.

Migrateduser

How do you get the metadata for a DCR. Or atleast what API should be used?
I am browsing the source from the livesitecs-components.spar and it is not well annotated.
Does the livesite.runtime have everything I need or do I need to be looking at wcm.lscs? Does the queryString passed to lscs.Client.getDocuments conform to the rules mentioned in the LiveSite Content Services 7.1 Technical Reference Guide?
Where is the Developers Guide for 7.1?

It would be great if you could clue me into the what java packages need to be used and a line or two showing how to get the metadata for a DCR.

Thanks.

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vpatel

Are you using LSCS + LSDS? Are you making the calls yourself to LSCS or via rules engine?

In any case, when a query is made, you'll get XML (assuming you are not using default XML and not JSON) that'll provide you with something like this (don't quote me - this is a real close illustration):

<metadatafield name="TeamSite/Metadata/SomeEA">Some EA value set via TS
... ... ...

Back to your question: if you are using Rules engine then you don't have to worry about which method is called and how. If you are doing this yourself then you should look at com.interwoven.wcm.lscs.* package. Just an FYI, there is an OOTB sample classes in one sample LSCS spar file that provide you with a LscsQuery.java, BaseLscsExternal.java, LscsFacetQuery.java, etc. There are 4 of them that provide you with some samples/examples.

HTH!

Migrateduser

Were still pretty early in the development. Just got the design doc from marketing. Now we are hashing out the design for implementation. Yes we will be using both LSDS and LSCS. What is this rules engine and what are the advantages to using it vs making the calls our selves?

vpatel

LS has a built-in rules engine that allows / empowers business to create/manage rules for targeted content. LS provides pretty robust rules interface and mechanism for this.

The biggest advantage of rules engine over coding it yourself is that you are empowering business users. They are in charge of dynamic features/functions rather than some "automated logic" controlled by IT.

You'll still have IT to do some configurations and hopefully minimal customizations within the "targeting framework" to support the business use cases. But at the end of the day content targeting is in the hands of the business users.

Additionally, you may still have cases where automated logic may make more sense where business users have no desire to manage the dynamic features/functions of it.

HTH!

Migrateduser

vpatel has pointed me in the right direction for this but for anyone that happens on this thread I have learned that:
- LiveSite Content Services 7.1 Technical Reference Guide (lscs_71_tech_ref_v01_en.pdf) has a good explanation of how to query the LSCS via the REST service.

- The livesitecs-components.spar has an examples of how to interact with LSCS via the java classes. I was confused by the expression language used to create the queries but in the end what is passed is what is described for the REST service.

- This may seem obvious but, a deployment needs to be set up to get the metadata into the LSCS.

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vpatel

- This may seem obvious but, a deployment needs to be set up to get the metadata into the LSCS.

Great to see things are working out well for you and you are on your way.

In any case, metadata deployment is done by the OOTB PLC WF. Yes, you have to execute the PLC WF anytime you make content/metadata updates but the core deployment features are provided by PLC WF.

HTH!

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Migrateduser

It was recommended to us to simplify our user experience to capture the metadata as part of the DCR. Will this PLC WF still do it or will we have to customize something to select the fields from the DCR that are meant to be Extended attributes? What manual should I read to find out more about PLC WF?

Thanks again.

vpatel

How you get your DCR fields to EAs is upto you. Here are a couple of ways that I can think of:

1. FormAPI: onSave event fire off a CallServer event that will do this -- make sure you are preventing or queueing the "CallServer" if the user hits "save" multiple times back to back. But this is doable.

Basically: OnSave > Call Server > CSSDK > SetEA API method call.

2. WF: Add an external task in your WF that will look out for particular type of DCRs...If found, scan the relevant XML node/attribute values and set them as EAs on that file. This external task has to happen before any deployment kicks off.

WF > External Task > CSSDK > SetEA API method call.

There may be other ways to do this :-)!

HTH!

Migrateduser

I am ignorant of the SetEA API. I have been trolling the javadoc for the Interwoven ContentServices SDK and I found the CSExtendedAttribute class which is available through the CSSimpleFile interface. What I cant find is how one gets a hold of that. Am I looking in the right place?

vpatel

Sample ....


String fullPath = "/default/main/WORKAREA/shared/some/file.txt"; // sample path
CSFile file = client.getFile(new CSVPath(fullPath));
if (file instanceof CSSimpleFile) {
  CSSimpleFile cssFile = (CSSimpleFile) file; 
}

CSExtendedAttribute csEA = cssFile.getExtendedAttribute("some/EAKey"); 
String eaValue = csEA.getValue();

Migrateduser

Nice, that will work and I understand. Then we would implement the WFMTask or appropiate interface. Copy the jar to iw-home/local/config/lib/content_center/customer_src/lib, run the toolkit and use the task in the work flow?

Adam Stoller

Nice, that will work and I understand. Then we would implement the WFMTask or appropiate interface. Copy the jar to iw-home/local/config/lib/content_center/customer_src/lib, run the toolkit and use the task in the work flow?

My guess is that you would be implementing a CSURLExternalTask class the java file would go under customer_src/src/com/company_name/package_name/ - the rest being pretty much what you summarized above.

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Migrateduser

I am implementing the CSURLExternalTask. The execute method passes in the CSExternalTask which has two getFiles methods. One returns CSAreaRelativePath[] the other CSFile[]. I am curious about the one that returns CSFile[] as it takes a parameter called query. What does this query look like? From the javadoc:
CSFile[] getFiles(java.lang.String query)
Gets files attached to the task, and fetch data specified in the query for the files.

I am hoping someting like this will work


 public void execute(CSClient client, CSExternalTask task, Hashtable params)throws CSException {
  CSSimpleFile cssFile = null; 
  CSFile[] files = task.getFiles("*");
  for(int i = 0;i< files.length;i++){
   if(files instanceof CSSimpleFile){
    cssFile = (CSSimpleFile) files;
    CSExtendedAttribute[] eas = extractExtendedAttributes(cssFile);
    cssFile.setExtendedAttributes(eas);
   }
  }
 }

Migrateduser

Another possible way to get the DCR file. Does this look correct I am not sure on how to get the info to create the CSVPath.


public class ExtractMetaData implements CSURLExternalTask{
  public void execute(CSClient client, CSExternalTask task, Hashtable params)throws CSException {
  CSSimpleFile cssFile = null; 
  CSAreaRelativePath[] files = task.getFiles();
  String serverName = client.getContext().getServerName();

  for(int i = 0;i< files.length;i++){
   CSFile file = client.getFile(new CSVPath(serverName,task.getArea().getVPath(),files));
     if(file!=null && file instanceof CSSimpleFile){
       cssFile = (CSSimpleFile) file;
       CSExtendedAttribute[] eas = extractExtendedAttributes(cssFile);
       cssFile.setExtendedAttributes(eas);
      }
     }
  }
...
}

Normally, I would debug by setting breakpoints and single stepping through this stuff to see what is in it. But I dont seem to have that option as the code has to go out to the server and I have run make_toolkit which is not the best iteration for testing and exploring what is going on.

Adam Stoller

I've tended to use the following - not necessarily the best, but it seems to do the job:

// assumes 'task' is a valid CSTask object
// assumes 'client' is a valid CSClient object
...
try {
    CSAreaRelativePath[] flist = task.getFiles();
    String areaPath = task.getArea().getVPath().toString();
    for (CSAreaRelativePath relPath : flist) {
        String path = areaPath + "/" + relPath.toString();
        CSSimpleFile csfile = (CSSimpleFile) client.getFile(new CSVPath(path));
        ...
} catch (CSException e) {
    ...
}

Migrateduser

Thanks, that clears it up for me. I'll add the instanceof checks for CSTask and CSClient.