The external data provider is a new API in Jahia 7, that helps to create connectors to external sources. It allows to transparently use or import any external content as if it was directly stored in Jahia. This session will explain how to use it and will show a simple connector example.

1. External Data Provider

2. Mount external data
 External data visible in
JCR tree
 Seen as normal nodes
for any jahia service
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3. ExternalDataSource




API to connect to simple data sources
Databases, filesystems, external APIs
Create a mapping to JCR API
Optional support for Search, write, lazy
loading, …
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4. Specify your mapping
 For every object :
 Associate a node type
 Map properties
 Define a path
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5. Specify your mapping
 Decide a mapping for node type and
properties
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6. Specify your mapping
 Define a tree structure for your objects
 Should be able to find object from path and
conversely !
 Optionally, define a unique identifier
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7. Implementation
 getItemByPath(path)
 getChildren(path)
 getItemByIdentifier(id)
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8. Implementation
 ExternalData for each object
 Holds id, path, types, properties
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9. Search
 One method search(query), with the user
query
 QueryHelper to helps parse the query
 Use getSupportedNodeTypes() to return
which types can be returned
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10. Lazy loading
 Don’t need to load all properties values
when getting node
 Instead, list properties names only
 And implement
getPropertyValues(path,property)
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11. Internationalization
 Internationalized properties returned per
language
 Better use lazy properties to avoid getting
all languages
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12. Writeable
 Allows to save content directly in the
provider
 Create, update, delete, move operations
 Called when using session.save()
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13. Extendable properties
 Can add mixin
and properties to
nodes
 Extensions
stored in the JCR
 All content
transparently
aggregated
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14. Provider Factories
 Define a node type
for a mount point
 Implements
“ProviderFactory”
 Appears in the
“mount” UI
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15. Demo