Actions and Behaviors!

Roy Wetherall – Founding Engineer - @rwetherall!

Agenda!

1.  Breaking it Down!2.  Behaviours!3.  Actions!4.  Demo!5.  Questions!

Breaking It Down!

Why Actions and Behaviours?!

Extend beyond content models.

Make extensions smarter. Encapsulate features.

React to changes.

Sum of the Parts ...!

Content Model +

Behaviours +

Actions =

Smart Repository Extension

Breaking it down ...!

Content Model – data structure and constraints

Behaviours – interactions, consequences and restrictions

Actions – execution

Behaviours!

Architecture!

Binding Behaviours!

Different Types Of Bindings!

Service – called every time Class – most common, bound to type or

aspect Association – bound to association, useful

for adding smarts to custom hierarchies

Properties – bound to property, too granular

Code Example – Java Behaviour!

Bind class behaviour. Java implementation.

Execute behaviour when aspect is added.

e.g. Initialise property with calculated value.

@see IdentifiableAspectPartOne.java

Notification Frequencies!

Every Time

First Event Transaction Commit

JavaScript Behaviours!

More accessible for developers.

Greater flexibility. Common Script API.

Spring configurable. No Java code!

Code Example – JavaScript !

Add identifiable aspect to content. JavaScript implementation.

Special ‘behaviour’ object available. Spring configured.

@see onCreateChildAssociation_cmContent_cmContains.js

Common uses for behaviours ... !!

Built in “rules”. Service call-back extension points.

Calculated properties. Complex constraints.

Auto-casting.

A model with behaviour is a “Smart Model”.

Code Example – Copy Service Callback!

Define custom behaviour copy. Ensures id is not duplicated.

New id defined on copy. Technique can be used to prevent aspects

being copied all.

See @IdentifiableAspectPartTwo.java

Code Example – Model Restrictions !

Behaviours can throw exceptions. Runtime exceptions rollback transactions. Can be used to enforce model constraints

(e.g. read only properties).

See @IdentifiableAspectPartThree.java

Behaviour Filter Bean!

Enable and disable behaviours from other services.

By type and/or node. Per transaction.

Enable/disable all.

See @BehaviourFilter.java

Actions!

What is an Action?!

Unit of work. Executed in the repository.

Passed parameters, return value. Sync or async execution.

Puts the ‘do’ in API. Reusable.

Alfresco implementation of the GoF “Command” pattern

Architecture!

Anatomy of an Action!

Code Example - Executing An Action!

Notify author when Identifiable node is deleted.

Execute custom action from behaviour. Use action service.

@see IdentifiableAspect.java

Custom Actions!

Extend built-in actions. Implemented in Java or JavaScript.

Available in Share UI. Executable as rules.

Custom conditions implemented in the same way.

Convenient way to execute asynchronous work.

Code Example – Custom Action !

Custom Java action. Notifies author via email. Configured using Spring.

Private action, does not appear in UI.

See @DeleteNotificationActionExecuter.java

Putting It All Together(or a quick demo in Share 4.0)!

Questions?!