Add-ons: Editors Picks

Richard EsplinCommunity Technology, Alfresco

Alfresco Add-ons

http://addons.alfresco.com

•Start with the highest-rated add-ons at:addons.alfresco.com/highest-rated-addons•Some exciting add-ons are not yet highly rated.

•That are personally interesting.•That solve a development / admin problem.•That deserve more exposure.•That are not on the engineering roadmap for

near-term implementation in Alfresco.

Selection Process

A broad view, rather than a deep view

•Introduce you to some useful tools•Save you some research time•Review the highest rated add-ons

•Look at a few tools in depth•Give an overview of what is involved to setup the tool• (But not replace your own research)

•Make your usage of Alfresco more powerful, productive, and enjoyable

Goals

•DevCon: Catch the Recordings (hopefully)•Great Dashlets (Will Abson): Day 1 @ 2:40• JavaScript Console (Florian Maul): Day 1 @ 3:50•Berlin only

•Site Extensions Project (Erik Winlöf): Day 1 @ 4:50•PDF Toolkit (Nathan McMinn): Day 2 @ 1:40•CMIS Views (Ian Norton): Day 2 @ 3:50

Other Great Add-ons

•Dashlet Challenge Winners•wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Dashlet_Challenge

•Apache Chemistry and CMIS libraries•CMIS and Apache Chemistry in Action

by Florian Muller, Jay Brown, and Jeff Potts

Other Great Add-ons

•Tech Talk Live•wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Live•Episode 53: Content Type and Form Design Tools

by Mike Priest•Episode 51: Packaging, Distributing, and Finding

Add-ons

•addons.alfresco.com•Highest Rated• (watch this space)

Other Great Add-ons

addons.alfresco.com/highest-rated-addons•Alfresco Form-Model Management:

Tech Talk Live•Javascript Console: DevCon Session•Gallery Plus Dashlet: Dashlet Challenge•Recent Comments Dashlet: Dashlet Challenge•Compress and Download: Roadmap 4.2•Alfresco Encryption Module: Roadmap•Change Share Locale: Roadmap•Bulk Filesystem Import Tool: Core

A Quick Review of the Highest Rated

•Alfresco in Atlassian Confluence:•Proprietary. In Atlassian Marketplace.• I have more experience with the plugin by Alfresco

Partner Rivet Logic

•Audit Surf: Doesn't support 4.0 yet.•Documentation in French

A Quick Review of the Highest Rated

•MetaDB Connector: VenziaIT•More complex use case

•Repository Size Dashlet: Tribloom•Have to compile

•Unzip Action: Atol Conseils & Développements• Installs fine, but won't unzip

•Multiple RSS Feed Dashlet: Atol Conseils & Développements• Installs fine, but configuration wouldn't save

Add-ons I Wish I Had Time For

•Alfresco Model Designer: beCPG•Unzip Action: Atol Conseils & Développements•Multiple RSS Feed Dashlet: Atol Conseils &

Développements•Shell Tools: Lothar Märkle, ecm4u.de•Share Import Export Scripts: Will Abson, Alfresco

A More Detailed Look

•I did not author these add-ons.•I am not an expert with the add-ons.•I generally haven't reviewed the code.•I haven't tested these add-ons in production.•This is not necessarily the best way to meet your

goals

Summary: I am telling you everything I know, which isn't much.

Caveat Munitor!

•Linux Mint Debian Edition (Wheezy) x64•System JDK: OpenJDK 1.7.0_03•Firefox 14.0.1•Alfresco Enterprise 4.0.2•Alfresco JRE: bundled•Tomcat: bundled•External PostgreSQL 9.1•zsh shell

My Environment

•Linux Mint Debian Edition (Wheezy) x64•System JDK: OpenJDK 1.7.0_03•Firefox 14.0.1•Alfresco Enterprise 4.0.2•Alfresco JRE: bundled•Tomcat: bundled•External PostgreSQL 9.1•zsh shell

My Environment

Alfresco Model Designer/addons/alfresco-model-designer

•GUI designer for models and forms in Share•Stores models in /Data Dictionary/Models•Does not yet support Alfresco 4.2•License: GNU LGPL•Should also look at Alfresco Form-Model

Management•You should understand the basics behind

Alfresco models and forms before trying the tool.

Background

Demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKd-PM_0qHc&feature=youtu.be

•Download tar.gz which contains amps•Partial instructions in the tar, full instructions in

the wiki•Install the amps. Claims to need --force but no

warning.•Start Alfresco•Browse to /share/service/modules/deploy•Needed before 4.0.2

•Admin Tools → Model designer

Installation

Alfresco Shell Tools/addons/alfresco-shell-tools

•Shell scripts written in Bash•License: GNU GPL v3•Uses curl to hit standard JSON webscripts•alfToolsLib.sh is called by most scripts•Examples:• alfCreateSite, alfDelete, alfUpload

•Uses: Dev environment setup, test environment setup, automated tests

•Good development tool—wouldn't use against production system.

Background

Demo

% ./alfListGroups.sh% ./alfCreateGroup.sh –help% ./alfCreateGroup.sh staff% ./alfCreateGroup.sh -p staff -d "Alfresco Employees" employees% ./alfCreateGroup.sh -p staff -d "External Contractors" contractors% ./alfListGroups.sh% ./alfCreateUser.sh -n resplin -p resplin -f Richard -l Esplin \ -e richard.esplin@example.com -g employees% ./alfListUsers.sh

% ./alfSearch.sh "plugs"% ./alfSearch.sh "plugs" | ./alfMetadata.sh - | jshon -e mimetype

•Normal *nix requirements: bash, grep, perl, curl•JSON parsing• sudo aptitude install libjansson4 libjansson-dev• git clone https://github.com/keenerd/jshon.git• cd jshon; make

•Configuration done through shell variables•Add jshon and shell tools to your path•ALFTOOLS_ENDPOINT,

ALFTOOLS_SHARE_ENDPOINT, ALFTOOLS_USER, ALFTOOLS_PASSWORD

Installation

•Code is pretty simple•Use "-" for reading from stdin•Unix pipes work great!

•Commands all have a "--help"

Good Points

•New project that can use your contribution• Files need license header•Some included scripts and functionality is not

implemented (just stubbed)•Debug output•Passwords get echoed to the user (still in debug)• Limited documentation

•Not for production•Not sure about performance implications

Concerns

Share Import / Export Scripts/addons/share-import-export-scripts

•Shell scripts written in Python•License: Apache•HTTP auth, then hits JSON webscripts; uses ACP

to package data•Manages sites and users•Includes RM and WebQuickStart sites•Uses: test environment setup, automated tests,

default site configurations•Good development tool—would be very cautious

about using against a production system

Background

Demo

% ./export-site.py --help% ./export-site.py swsdp swsdp.json -u admin -p admin \ -U http://127.0.0.1:8080/share --export-content --export-tags % vim swsdp.json

% ./purge-site.py swsdp

% ./import-site.py swsdp.json

% ./import-site.py data/sites/images.json

•Python 2.6 / 2.7•Download, extract, and run•Will probably want to "chown u+x *.py"•Most interaction is through export-site and import-

site. The other scripts are mostly helper scripts.

Installation

•Includes sample data so you can start playing•Commands implement "--help" flag•Mature project: documentation, issue queue,

documented code•ping.py: doesn't respond until login is successful

(pause for server start)•create-bootstrap-package.py for exporting the site

as a jar file for easy import into a different repo

Good Points

•Cautious in production•Doesn't export everything•passwords, activity feeds, customizations

•Not portable across versions of Alfresco

Concerns

Happy Hacking!