Slide deck to accompany Tesch Talk Live on New Client Config and Extension Points in Alfresco Share

1. New Client Config &
Extension Points in Share
Dave Draper @_DaveDraper
!

2. Background
• Alfresco Share was not originally intended
as a platform
• Spring Surf did not provide any extension
mechanism
• Difficult to identify use cases

3. Goals (for 4.0)
• Ensure that Spring Surf continues to be
compatible with previous Alfresco
releases (i.e. Avoid branching)
• Minimize Share code changes
• Provide the ability to easily extend Share
without copying and pasting code
• Provide extensions through simple JAR
deployment

4. Goals (for next major release)
• Make customizing client-side JavaScript
widgets simpler
• Convert Share WebScripts to common
“boiler-plate” template
• Move dependency requests into
WebScript “.html.ftl” files
• Remove Share WebScript “.head.ftl” files

5. Solution Overview
• Two distinct approaches to extension
o Customization by targeting existing files
o Customization through Component configuration
• Creation of in-memory output model
o Provides opportunity to amend default output
o Each FreeMarker template gets an output model
o Models can are nested
• Introduction of Sub-Components
o Solves 1-1 Region to Component mapping problem

6. File Customization
• Works with Templates or WebScripts
• Can extend i18n properties, JavaScript
controllers & FreeMarker templates
• FreeMarker extensions depend upon
custom directives
– <@region> & <@markup>
– Entirely abstract framework – scope for adding
new directives

7. What Can You Do With This?
• Modify Surf templates to add, remove,
modify Component bindings
• Change display labels
• Modify the content displayed by updating
the model

8. Sub-Components
• A Sub-Component maps to a WebScript
• Only AdvancedComponents support Sub-
Components
o Only Share 4.0 uses AdvancedComponents by default
o Configurable through Surf configuration
• Legacy configuration conversion
o Components become Sub-Components
• Support for dynamic evaluation of parameters
against request

9. Sub-Component Evaluations
• A Sub-Component can have zero or more
Evaluations
• Each Evaluation can use zero or more
Evaluators
• If all Evaluators are successful then Evaluation
overrides Sub-Component defaults
• WebScript URL, properties and index can be
overridden

10. What Can You Do With This?
• Add, remove and modify the content
within a Component
• Have a Component display different
content dynamically based on request
information (e.g. The Site being accessed,
the current User)

11. Extensions & Modules
• An “Extension” can contain zero or more “Modules”
• An Extension can be configured within the application
(e.g. Portlet extension) or externally in a JAR (e.g. RM
extension)
• Three deployment modes “auto”, “enable-auto-deploy”
and “manual” (manual is default)
• Default module configuration can be overridden when
deployed
• Modules can be dynamically deployed and removed
without server restart.

12. Benefits
• Easy to add new coarse grained content
to existing Share pages
• Easy to override i18n properties for
WebScripts
• Scope for future enhancements using in-
memory output model (i.e. new
FreeMarker directives)

13. Restrictions (in 4.0)
• Still difficult to extend JavaScript widgets
for fine grained changes
• Limited use of <@markup> directive in
Share
• Sub-Component extensions only work
with WebScripts
• Limited control over module overrides at
deployment

14. Additional Tooling
• “SurfBug”: identifies the Spring Surf
elements on each page:
o Sub-Components & Component bindings, properties &
evaluation results
o Contributing file paths
o WebScript information
o Customization data (i.e. use of extensibility directives)

15. Additional Dependency Handling
• Use <dependencies> element as a child
of <customization> element in Module
configuration:
<dependencies> <css>/res/demo/dependencies/
styles.css</css> <js>/res/demo/dependencies/
script.js</js> </dependencies>

16. Share Configuration Support
• Available from 4.0.2
• Use of <configurations> element as a
child of <module> element
• Allows dynamically evaluated Share
configuration changes (i.e. that would
typically be found in “share-config.xml”)
• MUST include all configuration – it is not
an augment capability

17. Demos

18. Adding New Content
(Method 1)

19. Create some content...
WebScript Descriptor
WebScript Template

20. Target Area Of Share...

21. Define new Sub-Component...

22. Deploy Module...

23. Result...

24. Hiding Existing Content
(Method 1)

25. Target Sub-Component to hide...

26. Result...

27. Conditional Hide

28. Create an Evaluator...

29. Make the Evaluator a Spring Bean...
org.springframework.extensions.surf.spring-surf-extensibility-context.xml

30. Specify the Evaluator...

31. Result...

32. Adding New Content
(Method 2)

33. Target a TemplateInstance...

34. Define a customization...

35. Create the customization file...
(in specified package)

36. Define a Component to bind to new Region...
(re-using the WebScript from the earlier example to provide
content)

37. Result...

38. Hiding Existing Content
(Method 2)

39. Remove the Region...
(Same target, different action)
Other actions are available...
§ “after”
§ “modify”

40. Override i18n Properties

41. Find the property...

42. Define a customization...

43. Create the customization file...
Note that the location of a WebScript customization is at a
different path root than for TemplateInstance customizations!

44. Result...

45. Override JavaScript Controller

46. Identify JavaScript model properties...

47. Define a customization...

48. Create The Customization File...

49. Result...

50. Other Demos (if time allows)
• Site conditional Flash upload
• User conditional help
• Additional dependencies
• Document Library extension

51. Other Customizations…
• Re-order entire pages (add + remove
regions)
• Auto readme (see Blog post)
• PeerBind Chat Service (see David
Webster’s blog)
• Resource Management module
• Portlet module
• ...

52. Additional Reading
• Lots more in-depth information and
tutorials available at:
http://blogs.alfresco.com/wp/ddraper
• Alfresco Surf Development Forum
• More blogs to come!