Optaros Surf Code Camp Introduction

Alfresco Surf Code Camp Introduction

Objectives By the end of this module you should know • How Surf came to be • Why learning something about Surf makes sense • High-level Surf concepts 07/11/08 Optaros and Client confidential. All rights reserved. 2

Why Surf?

Alfresco gap: The WCM “blinking cursor” Alfresco is a “decoupled” CMS • Unlike Drupal, there is no “Default Web Site” that you get out-of- the-box with Alfresco Alfresco Dynamic Web Site • Tried to address this gap • Example web site, set of web forms, JSPs, navigation management • Showed one way to build a dynamic web site on top of Alfresco Other developments at about this time • Web Script Framework launched • Growing frustration with limitations of JSF • Desire to separate the “web client” from the “repository” • Explosion of REST/AJAX toolkits and web application development frameworks 07/11/08 Optaros and Client confidential. All rights reserved. 4

Need: A new framework for Alfresco-centric apps Engineering needed a new framework to replace JSF • Rebuild the web client, make it easier to reuse web client components • Build new clients like Share Alfresco was looking for a way to broaden community involvement • Need an easy way to develop and share “components” • Lightweight framework that is fun/fast to code Customers wanted a way to build Alfresco-centric apps fast • Lightweight framework • Eventually, browser-based “page builder” type of tool 07/11/08 Optaros and Client confidential. All rights reserved. 5

Surf is born Web application development framework Web scripts at its core, plus: • Presentation tier concepts such as “page”, “theme”, “components” • Rudimentary navigation • API for making remote calls to Alfresco web scripts (or any other HTTP endpoint) • Alfresco concepts such as associating pages with Alfresco content types All configuration is done through XML Deploys as a web application • Can be separate app server or even separate physical node from the Alfresco repository Alfresco Share is Alfresco's first Surf-based application 07/11/08 Optaros and Client confidential. All rights reserved. 6

Yet Another Web Framework? Alfresco Services (REST & SOAP) make it easy to build solutions with various front-end technologies • Java portal servers: Liferay, JBoss Portal, etc. • Java frameworks: Spring, JBoss SEAM • PHP portal servers: Drupal • P-Language frameworks: Symfony (PHP), Django (Python) Does the world need another framework? If not, what are we doing here? • Learn how to customize and extend Alfresco clients built on Surf • Help expand the community by building Surf components others can incorporate in their Surf-based clients or custom sites • Establish Surf as an option for the development of complete Alfresco-based web apps when none of the more widely-adopted frameworks don't meet our needs 07/11/08 Optaros and Client confidential. All rights reserved. 7

Technical Overview

Alfresco Surf Design Objectives Lightweight and Scriptable • Web Scripts for User Interface Easy to Customize • XML Configuration files Works with Alfresco WCM • Manage the site using Alfresco WCM • Read and write from AVM stores Site Construction model / Component model • Provided out-of-the-box and extensible Site Dispatcher • Provided out-of-the-box and extensible Developer API 07/11/08 9

Alfresco Surf Architecture Presentation Tier • Alfresco Surf-Powered Application • Web Script Runtime • FreeMarker Processor • Spring • Some 3rd party libraries Repository Tier • Alfresco Repository • REST Interface to outside world • Web Script Runtime • FreeMarker Processor • Spring • Hibernate • 3rd party libraries 07/11/08 10

Two Tier Architecture Model Presentation Tier Objects Dispa tcher Pages Spring FreeMarker Templates Components Web Scripts Surf Themes Associations Connectors JSON JSON REST Web Scripts Content Graph Repository CMIS Documents Social Folders UI Associations Aspects Repository Tier 07/11/08 11

Model-View-Controller Two Levels Page Construction Renderers 07/11/08 12

Page Contruction vs. Renderer Page Renderer Renderer Renderer Renderer 07/11/08 13

Web Script Renderer Model-View-Controller All your base are belong to us! Controller Java Script View Model Document FreeMarker Metadata PHP Root-Scoped XSL Context Config 07/11/08 14

Web Script Renderer Model-View-Controller Model • Alfresco Repository elements (i.e. document, person, space, etc) • Root-scoped variables like search, avm, url • Configuration loaded from config files View • FreeMarker FTL • Alternative Template Processors (PHP, XSL) Controller • Java Script or JavaBeans if you write java-backed web scripts 07/11/08 15

Page Construction Model-View-Controller All your base are belong to us! Site Controller Dispatcher Renderers Model Objects Pages Freemarker Templates Template Instances Chrome Components HTML Themes JSP Associations 07/11/08 16

Page Construction Model-View-Controller Model • Template Instances • Template Types • Components • Component Types • Pages • Page Types • Page Associations • Configurations • Content Associations • Chrome • Themes View • Renderers such as Web Script Renderer, JSP Renderer, etc Controller • Site Dispatcher (XML configurable) 07/11/08 17

Learning Alfresco Surf Renderers • Build a component • Learn about remoting Site Dispatching • Build a site • Learn about site composition Put it all together • See if we can do something cool 07/11/08 18

Renderers Out of the Box Renderers • Web Script • Java Bean • JSP • FTL Let’s start with Web Scripts • The most common and most powerful rendering facility • No Java coding, no server restarts • Rich underlying API for easy extension Most Surf Components will be written using Web Scripts! Surf allows you to build your own renderers in addition to the ones that it provides out-of-the-box 07/11/08 19

Web Scripts Presentation Web Scripts • Web Scripts on the Presentation Tier • Responsible for generating markup (HTML) • Isolated from Alfresco Repository • Model context purely derived from framework (no “document”) • Can call over to Alfresco using “remote” variable Data Web Scripts • Web Scripts on the Repository Tier • Responsible for generating JSON, XML (ATOM) or other serialized data format • Wired into the Alfresco Repository • Context includes Alfresco Repository elements (“document”) 07/11/08 20

How are Presentation Web Scripts used? Surf Components Share Dashlets 07/11/08 21

Web Script Review http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Web_Scripts Writing a Presentation Web Script • Same as writing a Repository Web Script 07/11/08 22

Wrap-up In this module, you learned... • Surf evolved out of early efforts to provide a site building framework on top of Alfresco • There are many ways to build presentation tiers on top of Alfresco —Surf is the one chosen by Alfresco to build their clients • Surf is a two-tier web application framework • Each tier follows an MVC pattern • Web scripts on the Surf or presentation tier can communicate with the repository remotely • Web scripts on the repository tier return serialized data as JSON or XML 07/11/08 Optaros and Client confidential. All rights reserved. 23

Optaros Surf Code Camp Introduction

by Jeff Potts on Feb 05, 2009

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