Web Scripts Training Course

2 days.

This course shows how Alfresco web scripts are created and how they can be used for both integrating with other systems and for display and rendering purposes. This course will enable you to extend Alfresco to integrate with other applications and extend the functionality of Alfresco to meet your own specialized needs.

This course is aimed at java developers who have prior knowledge of Alfresco and are looking to understand the Alfresco web script interfaces in order to significantly customize Alfresco or integrate Alfresco with other systems.

Delegates are expected to be familiar with javascript and XML. It is helpful if delegates have previously used a templating language such as FreeMarker or Smarty and prior knowledge of an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) such as Eclipse is a bonus.

In order to run the virtual machine your laptop needs to have some spare capacity. The machine requirements are:

Windows

• Standard x86-compatible or x86-64-compatible processor with a minimum of two cores. 733MHz or faster CPU minimum.
• Minimum 2GB of RAM (4GB RAM recommended).
• 1.7GB free disk space for VMware Player installation and at least 8GB for the Alfresco virtual machine

Macintosh

• Minimum 2GB of RAM (4GB RAM recommended) 
• 700MB free disk space for VMware Fusion and at least 8GB for the Alfresco virtual machine
• Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later; Mac OS X 10.6 or later

Alfresco Web scripts provide a unique way to programmatically interact with the Alfresco Content Application Server. Unlike other interfaces exposed by Alfresco, Web scripts offer a RESTful API for the content residing in the content repository. REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style of which the Web architecture is the most prominent example, one based on HTTP requests and responses, URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers), and document types.

The most exciting feature of Alfresco Web scripts is that they allow you to implement your own RESTful API. You do not need tooling or Java knowledge to create Web scripts; you simply need your favorite text editor or the Alfresco Explorer Web client: No compilation, generators, server restarts, or complex installs are required. This approach to developing an Alfresco API means that Web scripts offer many advantages over existing technologies, such as SOAP, including ease and speed of development, and flexibility in API design.

Introduction

Creating  a Web script

• Defining a Web script
• Storing a web script
• Registering a Web script
• Listing all Registered Web scripts
• Invoking a Web script

Introduction to FreeMarker

• FreeMarker Basics
• FreeMarker Alfresco API
• FreeMarker Built-ins

The API in practice

• FreeMarker data models
• Alfresco FreeMarker data model
• Alfresco FreeMarker root objects
• How to access Alfresco root objects using the Template Node API
• About additional Alfresco FreeMarker APIs

Alfresco JavaScript API

• Alfresco JavaScript root objects
• Alfresco JavaScript Script Node API
• About other Alfresco JavaScript APIs

Searching

• Lucene
• FTS-Alfresco
• CMIS-QL

Calling Web scripts

• Calling Webscripts
• Authentication
• Tickets vs. User/Pass
• Out of the Box Web Scripts
• Error Handling
• Creating a Content Access Layer in your  Application

Introduction to Presentation Templates

• What are Presentation Templates
• The Template Context
• Templates, Custom Views and Dashlets
• Accessing Templates Externally via URLs

Java-backed Web scripts

• Deploying a Java-backed Web script
• Deploying new root scoped objects

Advanced topics

• Internationalization
• Configuration 
• Content negotiation 
• Multi part forms 
• Request processing 
• Caching 
• Advanced descriptor options