Content Server Development

494 Pages·2006·2.58 MB·English

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BOOKS FOR PROFESSIONALS BY PROFESSIONALS® THE EXPERT’S VOICE® IN STELLENT
Companion eBook
Available
The Definitive Guide to Stellent
Content Server Development The Definitive
Guide to
Dear Reader,
S
You have probably heard of content management; your organization probably The Definitive Guide to
has a system already deployed. But is your system flexible, easy to customize, and
enterprise scalable? If you don’t own the Stellent Content Server, probably not.
People are always amazed when I show them how quickly they can set up t Stellent
and modify the Content Server. You can create customizations, integrations,
and content-centric applications very rapidly by leveraging the right pieces of e
Stellent’s framework. The goal of this book is to show you how and to help you
do so in the most effective way.
This book is organized in two halves. The first is a guide to Stellent’s frame-
l
work. It explains the core Java-based, service-oriented architecture—and how
all the pieces fit together. It contains several dozen sample customizations of l
the front-end interface, the back-end services, and integrations with other
e
applications. The second half is a developer’s reference manual on core Stellent
functionality and the internal API. Throughout the book I reveal tips and tricks
Content Server
on security, performance, metadata design, maintenance, hidden features, and
general best practices. n
You need enterprise software that can change with you. This book contains
the resources and samples you need to ensure that your content management
system will adapt to future requirements. It is also a testament to the unparalleled Development
t
flexibility of data-driven programming and service-oriented architectures.
It doesn’t matter whether you are just contemplating an enterprise-level
deployment or whether you own Stellent and want to push it to its limits. Either
way, you will benefit from this book. Enjoy! DC
Brian “Bex” Huff eo
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FBOY RP RPOROFEFSESSISOIONNALASLS™ “Finally,a comprehensive reference book of Stellent’s framework and methodology! le A comprehensive guide and reference for
A true testament of why Stellent is #1!” on all Stellent administrators and developers
Companion eBook —Heidi Kujawa, PMP pt
Director, Enterprise Applications

m
Sony Pictures Entertainment S
ee
“I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in customizing
See last page for details Stellent Content Server.” nr
on $10 eBook version v
—George Annen, t
e
Hyundai Information Service North America (HISNA)
Brian “Bex” Huff
r
ISBN 1-59059-684-6
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6846fm.qxd 5/26/06 10:56 AM Page i
The Definitive Guide to
Stellent Content Server
Development
Brian “Bex” Huff
6846fm.qxd 5/26/06 10:56 AM Page ii
The Definitive Guide to Stellent Content Server Development
Copyright © 2006 by Brian Huff
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
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Lead Editor: Jonathan Hassell
Technical Reviewer: Samuel White
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6846fm.qxd 5/26/06 10:56 AM Page iii
Contents
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
About the Technical Reviewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
(cid:2) CHAPTER 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Enterprise Content Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Stellent Content Server (SCS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Getting Started with Stellent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Customizing the Content Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
(cid:2) CHAPTER 2 Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Service-Oriented Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Modifying the Content Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Dynamic Server Page Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Component Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
(cid:2) CHAPTER 3 Using HCSTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Simple HCSTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Search Results Portal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Advanced Search Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Custom Check-In Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
(cid:2) CHAPTER 4 Using JSPs and Servlets in Stellent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Initial Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Simple JSPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Search Results Portal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Advanced Search Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Custom Check-In Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
iii
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iv (cid:2) CONTENTS
Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
(cid:2) CHAPTER 5 Using HCSPs and HCSFs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Designing Simple HTML Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Designing Comments Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Forms to Generate Comment Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Option Lists on Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Updating and Deleting Values on a Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
(cid:2) CHAPTER 6 Leveraging IDOC Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
IDOC Pages and Portals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
IDOC and HTML Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Overriding Metadata Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
(cid:2) CHAPTER 7 Introduction to Custom Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Tools and References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Hello User Include. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Hello User Service and Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Overriding an Include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
(cid:2) CHAPTER 8 Customizing Layouts and Skins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Creating a New Skin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Adding and Modifying Navigation Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Custom Action Popup Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Custom Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
(cid:2) CHAPTER 9 Customizing Forms and Core Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Finding the Template Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Finding the Correct Include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Finding Includes and Templates in Other Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Adding Search Feedback Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
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(cid:2) CONTENTS v
Personalized Quick Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Hidden and Preset Metadata Fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Component Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
(cid:2) CHAPTER 10 Advanced Component Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Advanced Component Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Setup of a Java Development Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
(cid:2) CHAPTER 11 Custom Java Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Dynamic AutoNumber Prefix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Hello World Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Add Alternate File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Creating Custom IdocScript Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Executing a Service Call from a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Database Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
(cid:2) CHAPTER 12 Advanced Topics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Web Services and SOAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
J2EE Application Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Active Server Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Site Studio and Dynamic Converter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
WebDAV and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Security Customizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
The Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
(cid:2) APPENDIX A IdocScript Language Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Lexical Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Expressions and Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Dynamic HTML Resource Includes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Flow Control Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Directives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Naming Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
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vi (cid:2) CONTENTS
(cid:2) APPENDIX B Common IdocScript Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
IdocScript Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
(cid:2) APPENDIX C IdocScript Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Top 50 Environment Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Top 50 Computed Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Top 50 Local Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
(cid:2) APPENDIX D Dynamic HTML Resource Includes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
(cid:2) APPENDIX E Stellent Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Top 50 Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
(cid:2) APPENDIX F Tomcat Integration Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
idcserver.ServerBean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
idcserver.ServerResultSet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
idcserver.ServerFieldInfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
idcserver.ContentServerException . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
(cid:2) APPENDIX G Layout Manager API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
The navBuilder Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
navBuilder Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Global Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
(cid:2) APPENDIX H Java Filter Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
(cid:2) APPENDIX I Aliasable Java Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
(cid:2) APPENDIX J HyperData Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
HDA File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Internal Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
(cid:2) INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
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About the Author
(cid:2) BRIAN “BEX”HUFFhas been programming computers since the age of
ten, like many developers these days. He holds several degrees, including
Physics, Mathematics, Philosophy, Civil Engineering, and Computer
Science. Despite a highly technical background, he has always believed
that the greatest skills a technical person can possess are the abilities to
communicate and teach.
Brian has worked at Stellent for seven years and has worn many
hats in the company. He has been an architect, designer, and developer
and has performed training, documentation, and consulting. He is a
moderator and frequent contributor to the intradoc_users Yahoo group for Stellent users:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/intradoc_users/. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife,
Michelle, and two noisy cockatiels.
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6846fm.qxd 5/26/06 10:56 AM Page ix
About the Technical Reviewer
(cid:2) SAMUEL WHITE grew up in Kampala, Uganda, and Silver Springs and
Columbia, MD. After completing a Mathematics Ph.D. at the University
of California, Berkeley in 1989, Sam spent four years as a postdoctoral
researcher before becoming a full-time software developer. He joined
Stellent as a software designer in 1996 and was appointed Vice President
of Server Products in 2003. Sam’s free time is spent raising a five-year-old
daughter with his wife of 16 years, reading books (both nonfiction and
fiction), and playing/studying games (particularly bridge).
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