A brief introduction to the CMIS spec and some tips and tricks for developers new to CMIS. Demos showed how to install and use cmislib, the Python API for CMIS, and OpenCMIS, the Java API. Both projects are part of Apache Chemistry. Originally given as part of an Alfresco webinar. Recording: http://blogs.alfresco.com/wp/webcasts/2012/01/getting-started-with-cmis-2/

1. Getting Started with CMIS
January 2012
Jeff Potts
Chief Community Officer
Apache Chemistry cmislib lead

2. Agenda
• What is CMIS?
– Brief description
– Quick overview of the domain model
• First steps using Apache Chemistry
– Demos using cmislib (Python) and OpenCMIS
(Java)
– Demo using OpenCMIS Workbench & the Groovy
Console
• Tips & Tricks for New CMIS Developers
• Where to learn more

4. What is CMIS?
• Vendor independent API for working with
content repositories
• Specification managed by OASIS
– Domain model
– Protocol bindings
• Web Services Binding
• ATOM Pub Binding
• Browser (JSON) Binding (Coming in 1.1)
– CMIS Query Language

5. The Beauty of CMIS
Presentation
Tier
REST SOAP
?
Content
Services Tier
Enterprise
Apps Tier ?

6. Meet CMIS
Consumer
Client
read write
Services
Domain Model
Provider
Content
Vendor Management
Mapping Interoperability
Services
Content
Repository CMIS lets you
read, search, write, update, delete, version, c
ontrol, … content and metadata!

7. Developed by 30+ ECM Vendors
Implementations Already Available…
Providers
Consumers

8. Use Cases
Content
Client Client
Repository
Content Content Content
Content
Repository Repository Repository
Content
Repository
Repository
• Collaborative Content Creation • Workflow & BPM
• Portals • Archival
• Client Application Integration • Virtual Documents
• Mashup • DAM / WCM

9. Types
Document Folder
• Content • Container
• Renditions • Hierarchy
• Version History • Filing
Described by
Type Definitions
Relationship Policy
• Source Object • Target Object
• Target Object

10. Type Definitions
Object Property
• Type Id • Property Id
• Parent * • Display Name
• Display Name • Type
•Queryable • Required
• Controllable • Default Value
•…
Document Folder Relationship Policy
•Versionable • Source Types
• Allow Content • Target Types
Custom Type

12. • Open Source implementations of CMIS
• Apache Chemistry is the umbrella project
for all CMIS related projects within the
ASF
– OpenCMIS (Java, client and server)
– cmislib (Python, client)
– phpclient (PHP, client)
– DotCMIS (.NET, client)

13. • Apache Chemistry started as an incubator
project in May 2009
– Graduated to a top level project in February
2011.
• Backed by
Adobe, Alfresco, Nuxeo, OpenText, and
SAP
• OpenCMIS is a de-facto reference for
CMIS and is also used by the CMIS TC to
test new CMIS 1.1 features

14. FIRST STEPS WITH CMIS
Real-world coding examples

15. Notes on my setup
• Alfresco 4.0.c Community
• SomeCo content model (See ecmarchitect.com)
• Mac OS X, Tomcat, MySQL, Eclipse
• Java
– OpenCMIS 0.6*
– Alfresco OpenCMIS extension 0.2*
– JDK 1.6.0_29
• Python
– cmislib 0.5
– Python 2.6/2.7
* Distributed with Alfresco 4 SDK

16. DEMO
Installing and Using cmislib
Use easy_install to install cmislib. Docs available here.
:10

17. DEMO
Using OpenCMIS to create, query, relate, & delete
The code comes from the ecmarchitect.com custom content types
tutorial, available here. Apache Chemistry OpenCMIS lives here.
:10

18. DEMO
Using the Groovy Console in the OpenCMIS Workbench
:05

19. TIPS & TRICKS
A few tidbits for the developer new to CMIS

20. Prefix cannot be null or empty
• You may see this error when using the
Alfresco OpenCMIS extension
• It is due to a dependency problem
• If you are using Maven, see this issue.
• If you are setting an explicit
classpath, refer to the CMIS classpath set
in the Ant build file in the content types
tutorial

21. Using Alfresco CMIS extension with
OpenCMIS Workbench
• You must do this if you want to set
properties defined in an aspect
• Copy alfresco-opencmis-extension-0.2.jar
to workbench/lib
• Set the following on “Expert” tab:
org.apache.chemistry.opencmis.objectfactory.classname=o
rg.alfresco.cmis.client.impl.AlfrescoObjectFactoryImpl
• Click “Load Repositories” before leaving
the expert tab

22. In Alfresco 4 the CMIS URLs have
changed
• In Alfresco 4, OpenCMIS is now the CMIS
implementation
– Use http://localhost:8080/alfresco/cmisatom
instead of http://localhost:8080/alfresco/s/cmis
– Consider the CMIS web scripts to be
deprecated
– You may see different results b/w the two
URLs

23. CMIS in server-side JavaScript*
varcmisConnection = cmis.getConnection();
varcmisSession = cmisConnection.getSession();
folder = cmisSession.getRootFolder();
print("Children of: " + folder.name + "(" +
folder.id + ")");
variter = folder.getChildren().iterator();
while (iter.hasNext()) {
print(iter.next().name);
}
*Broken in 4.0.c Community

24. Experimental JSON binding in
Alfresco 4
• Alfresco 4 includes an experimental
implementation of the new browser
binding
• http://localhost:8080/alfresco/cmisbrowser
http://localhost:8080/alfresco/cmisbrowser
http://localhost:8080/alfresco/cmisbrowser/{repo id}/root
http://localhost:8080/alfresco/cmisbrowser/{repo
id}/root?includeAllowableActions=true&skipCount=0&maxItems
http://localhost:8080/alfresco/cmisbrowser/{repo
id}/root/cmis-demo
http://localhost:8080/alfresco/cmisbrowser/{repo
id}/root/cmisdemo?selector=children
http://localhost:8080/alfresco/cmisbrowser/{repo
id}/root/cmisdemo?selector=object

25. Working with permissions
• ACLs are lists of ACEs
• In Alfresco, group identifiers start with
”GROUP_”
• You cannot break inheritance through
CMIS, but you can determine whether an
ACE is inherited or “direct”

26. WHERE TO LEARN MORE

27. CMIS Resources
• cmis.alfresco.com includes a public CMIS server
and links to CMIS resources
• Read the CMIS specification
• Apache Chemistry site has clients, lightweight
server, documentation
• Alfresco Extension for OpenCMIS allows you to
work with aspect-defined properties
• “Getting Started with CMIS” tutorial shows how to
use cURL to hit ATOM Pub binding directly
• Slideshare has some CMIS related presentations
from DevConhere and here

28. QUESTIONS
jeff.potts@alfresco.com
@jeffpotts01 (Twitter & all chat services)
http://ecmarchitect.com