Alfresco in few points - Search Tutorial

What is this
flower ?

Search Tutorial

Curious people who want to
understand Alfresco…

With lots of questions…
(To express…)

Simply a presenter with
presentations about Alfresco

with a few answers…
(To verify)

But before starting,
here is a reminder !

The principle is…
Everything is a NODE!

I am a beautiful
node!

The rule is…
Alfresco provides
services to manage
Nodes

Even I have a
manager…

As far as I understand, different
language can be possibly used
to do searches…

Indeed!
Let’s have a look…

Lucene ?
• Apache Lucene is a high-
performance, full-featured text
search engine library written
entirely in Java.

• Although Lucene provides the
ability to create your own queries
through its API, it also provides a
rich query language through the
Query Parser, a lexer which
interprets a string into a Lucene
Query using JavaCC.

• Source: Lucene.org

And with Alfresco…
How does it work?

1. Collect
Type

Aspect
Properties

Key words

ID

2. Preserve

ID

As
pec
Type

t
Proper
ties

Key w ords

3. Use

es
P roperti
Key words
Aspect

When a node is created,
the following actions take place
• Indexing of the whole
set of the items
properties

• Plain text Indexing of
the related content

When a node is created:
• The plain text indexing
takes place if the
content format is:
– Office (Open ou Microsoft)
– XML/HTML
– PDF
– Emails
– Texte

Have a look into the data model!

File : contentModel.xml

What does the
« tokenize »
principle mean?

File : contentModel.xml

Tokenising is to split
(or not) a word into
one or many key
words.

Example

Here is a PowerPoint presentation
regarding Alfresco and its search feature.

Without
« Tokenisation »…

t
t en
C onHere
is a PowerPoint presentation

A copy of the whole
sentence is made in
the index
t
t en
C onHereis a PowerPoint presentation

D EX
IN Here is a PowerPoint presentation

The search would
then be done on the
whole sentence!
u
t en
C onHere
is a PowerPoint presentation

D EX
IN Hereis a PowerPoint presentation

However if the
sentence is split into
key words…
u
t en
C on Here is a PowerPoint presentation

The serach can be
done on those key
words only!
u
t en
C on Here is a PowerPoint presentation

D EX
IN Presentation,PowerPoint,
Alfresco, search

So don’t forget to
check your data
model !

Lucene in Alfresco enables
you to query on
• The NodeRef (ID)
• The Type
Of a NODE!
• The Properties
• The Aspects Do you work for the
secret services ?

• The key Words
(Content)

To query on the Noderef

ID:quot; <Mon NodeRef> quot;

What is the interest of
searching for a node we
already know the name of???

To query on the Type

TYPE:quot; <TypeQName> quot;

Hopefully you remember
what’s the QName…

Otherwise click here

To query on a property

@<QNamePropriété>:quot; Value quot;

Why is it different than the
other queries??

Why is it not upper
case ?

To query on an Aspect

ASPECT:quot; <AspectQName> quot;

AAhh! That’s better!

To query on a key word
included in the content of
the node
TEXT:<value>

Okey… Understood!

I am getting bored…

Note
Lucene and Alfresco!
According to the Alfresco version you
are working with, you can get
completely different results than
those presented in here.

This is the magic of the search feature!

How to make a simple
query with Lucene
Connect as « admin » to
Alfresco

Click on

Choose the node browser

How to make a simple
query with Lucene
Choose the store :
workspace://SpacesStore

In the drop down list, choose
Lucene

I want the
« Folder Test »

I want the
« Folder Test »!!!!!
@cm:name:’’Folder Test’’

To identify and make a node
unique in a store, we use…

A
UUID

The concatenation of the
protocole, the name of the store
and the UUID of a node is

A
NodeRef

In our case

NodeRef UUID

I want the
« Foder Test » with
the UUID
ID:quot;workspace://SpacesStore/
b7ecc8b1-5edb-11dd-
afdd-79a008cbb404quot;

What about a search with
several criterias ?

Operators
+
To add a validated criteria

-
To add a non validated criteria

AND
To add a criteria

OR
To add a choice between several
criterias

NOT
To exclude a criteria

I want all the spaces with
the name « space »
TYPE:quot;cm:folderquot; AND @cm:name:quot;Spacequot;

TYPE:quot;cm:folderquot; +@cm:name:quot;Spacequot;

+TYPE:quot;cm:folderquot; AND @cm:name:quot;Spacequot;

Let’s add a category
to a space

Contex
t

I want all folders with the name
« space » which has a category
TYPE:quot;cm:folderquot;
AND @cm:name:quot;Spacequot;
AND ASPECT:quot;cm:generalclassifiablequot;

I want all spaces with the name
« space » which
DOES NOT have a category
AND @cm:name:quot;Spacequot;
AND NOT ASPECT:quot;cm:generalclassifiablequot;

+@cm:name:quot;Spacequot;
-ASPECT:quot;cm:generalclassifiablequot;

Let’s have a look into the
property types

Note

Work Zone!

This section is
experimental and results
vary a lot according to
the tests!

To search for text properties, you
can use specific operators

Special Operators
?
Can replace one character

*
Can replace one or many
characters

starting with « spa »

AND @cm:name:quot;Spa*quot;

+@cm:name:quot;Spa*quot;

ending with « spa »

AND @cm:name:quot;*acequot;

+@cm:name:quot;*acequot;

Note

End of work zone!

This section was
experimental!

For more details…
Lucene WebSite
• http://lucene.apache.org/
• http://lucene.apache.org/java/docs/queryparsersyntax.html

Alfresco Wiki
• http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Search#Lucene
• http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Lucene
• http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Lucene_Extensions_and_Issues

XPath ?
• XPath is a language for
addressing parts of an XML
document, designed to be
used by both XSLT and
XPointer.

• Source w3c.org

But we are dealing with nodes…
Not with xml…

A Principle…
A Node can
be identified
as an xml
What a face I have
Mirror
now…

XML

So XPath enables us to browse
the nodes…

XPath in Alfresco enables to
query on…
• The Type
• The Properties
Of a Node!
• The Aspects
• The Associations Why me…

In the Node family, I
want to find myself !

self

Then my
Father!

parent

Then my
children!

Child

Then my older
brothers

preceding-sibling

Then my younger
sisters

following-sibling

Now let’s explore my
family further

I want to know my
entire lineage!

descendant

I want to know my
ancestors

ancestor

I want to know all the
oldest nodes in my family

preceding

I want all the youngest
nodes

following

Isn’t my family
beautiful?

Unfortunately, all my
family are not visible in
Alfresco…

following following-sibling

preceding-sibling preceding

To query on an axis

Axe::*

I want to know all the nodes
on this axis!

To query on a property

Axe::*[@<QName>:’<Value>’]

It remind me of Lucene…

To query on an aspect

Axe::*[hasAspect(’<QNameAspect>’)]

The aspect doesn’t make
the node!

To query on a type

Axe::*[subtypeOf(’<QNameType>’)]

Beware! This means the
current and child types!!!

To query on the entire set
of properties and content…

Axe::*[contains(’<Value>’)]

Beware! This means the
current and child types!!!

It’s exactly the same!
Except that…

XPath :
From the root of
the store
SelectNodes :
Related to the
current node

We want to start from a
specific folder!

I want the current node

self::*

I want the children of the
current node

descendant::*

I want the parent of the
current node

parent::*

I want the child which has a
description « Space 1.1 Description »

descendant::*[@cm:description
='Space 1.1 Description']

Also note that operators are also
available in XPath…

I want the child which has a description
« Space 1.1 Description » and that is of type
folder

descendant::*[@cm:description
='Space 1.1 Description' and
subtypeOf('cm:folder')]

I want the child which has its aspect related to
categories and is of type folder

descendant::*[hasAspect('cm:genera
lclassifiable') and
subtypeOf('cm:folder')]

To go further…
• Wikipedia [FR]

• W3Schools[ENG]

• Spécifications W3C : Xpath 1.0[ENG]
• Spécifications W3C : XPath 2.0[ENG]

• Developpez.com (A voir!)

I now have many nodes! But where
is Wally/Waldo…? Well actually…
where is the good node?

If you are looking for a node,
use the services…

First, Think about
Alfreso Service Registry !

And then call …
AttributeService
MultilangualContentService AuditService
ScriptService
ActionService
AuthorityService AuthenticationService SearchService
RuleService
NodeService TemplateService
AVMService
CopyService
LockService CategoryService

CheckOutCheckInService
FileFolderService
ContentService
MimeTypeService
EditionService
DictionnaryService

WorkflowService ImporterService
ExporterService
VersionService TransactionService

Or…
AttributeService
MultilangualContentService AuditService
ScriptService
ActionService
AuthorityService AuthenticationService SearchService
RuleService
NodeService TemplateService
AVMService
CopyService
LockService CategoryService

CheckOutCheckInService
FileFolderService
ContentService
MimeTypeService
EditionService
DictionnaryService

WorkflowService ImporterService
ExporterService
VersionService TransactionService

What if I want to share my
nodes ?

You would have to
use the protocoles…

Alfresco in few
points…
By JM.PASCAL

www.opensourceecm.fr
&
www.open-source-ecm.com

Alfresco in few points - Search Tutorial

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