Overview

SIDE/Alfresco provides to business users and developers an easy to use graphical toolbox to quickly develop Alfresco application.

Main features are:

  • Easy Alfresco configuration
  • Easy Portal integration (Liferay or Alfresco Share) and generation
  • Sustainability
  • Reduced time to market

These features can be addressed by domain specialists and developers.

Features 

Easy Alfresco configuration

The following elements are configured through models then generated immediately without any errors.

 

The generated Alfresco configuration contains:

  • templates for web client and for each content type
    • dashboard and dashlets
    • node summary panel
  • webscripts 
    • xml
    • rss
    • json
    • html
    • datatable
  • reports
    • BIRT
    • IReport
  • forms' dialogs
  • recent contents

Detailed Alfresco Configuration Through Generation

All the following files are automatically generated. This list is not exhaustive because new features are added all the time. 

web-client-config.xml
  • content type
    • class type
    • dynamic content
    • custom properties
  • search
    • simple-search
    • advanced-search
  • dashlets 
  • actions 
    • browse-create-menu
    • create action
    • dialogs
model.xml
  • constraints
    • enum
    • dynamic enum
  • types
    • properties
    • index
    • constraints 
    • (child) associations
    • mandatory aspects
  • aspects
I18N messages
  • model.properties
  • web-client_fr_FR.properties by default
faces-config-custom.xml
  • Beans 
    • PropertySheet
    • AssociationEditor
    • ChildAssociationEditor
  • Customization 
  • BrowseBean
    • Custom types
    • View by type
  • CRUD
    • SearchBean
    • AddBean
    • DeleteBean
    • NodeInfoBean
    • SearchBasedListGenerator
    • DataLayer
  • UI
    • CreateTypeDialog 
    • PopupEditContent
    • ClassAssociationBean
    • Text area
    • Text fields
  • Misc.
    • GroupManagementBean
    • AdminBean
  • View
    • JSONBean
  • Portal
    • Xbel
    • ManageLink

Content type

nullThrough the Class Diagram modeler provided with BxDS for Alfresco, you can design the data model of your ECM application:

  • aspects, classes, associations beetween classes and aspects, cardinality
  • attributes, constraints, enumerations (static and dynamic)

When generating the Alfresco configuration like you can view on the schema above, depending on your models, tens, hundreds or even thousands of lines of XML code will be automatically generated, without errors:

  • model with content types, aspects, attributes
  • web client configuration file
  • web scripts to get data related to one content type

Workflow

Through the workflow modeler (BPM) provided with BxDS for Alfresco, you can design complex workflows of your ECM application by mixing the following concepts:

  • actors,
  • tasks, decision, timers,
  • action, event,
  • join, fork

When generating the Alfresco configuration according the above architecture, all the XML configuration that Alfreco needs will be automatically generated, without errors:

  • jPDL file
  • data model related to each task
  • graphical components to present correctly all the data

Easy Portal Integration 

Portal integration adds the following features:

  • Portal configuration
    • Liferay configuration 
    • Alfresco Share configuration
  • SSO integration
  • Forms
    • Alfresco Forms
    • XForms
  • BIRT integration

Portal 

Which portal is suitable to your needs? Alfresco Web Client or Alfresco Share in 3.0? Liferay? JBoss? Which version? BxDS allows you to model your portal and generate the configuration corresponding to your needs. BxDS makes also migration from one technology to another very easy. Just choose another generator. 


One more technology to learn... We learnt it for you! All our knowledge is encapsulated in our Alfresco & Liferay generator. Just press Generate and choose  the right target technical platform:

  • Alfresco Share. Tightly integrated with Alfresco, you will benefit of wiki, blog and above all the document library
  • Liferaynull. Liferay is very interesting with its powerful user interface which makes easy for anybody to add portlets. All content type designed in BxDS generate web scripts which are then exposed as portlets.

 

SSO integration

Forms

Alfresco Forms

 You have the choice beetween raw Alfresco Forms or Enhanced Alfresco Forms from BxDS. Enhanced Forms provide you Class association with a better ajax integration. Moreover, the forms may integrated easily in ajax or popup windows to better suit your needs.

XForms

The same widget are available on this standard. The chosen implementation is Chiba, which has been extended to provide better layout for complex forms. Powerful functional widgets have been added to make selection on big set of data or documents easier. 

BIRT integration

In the above architecure, all information, except documents, is synchronized in the relational database through a JCR to relational mapping. In fact, this mapping has been done from Class diagram to JCR and to Relational concepts too. Data are then available to usual relational tools like Access, Excel, BIRT or JasperSoft, ...

Sustainability

Sustainability is achieved through agility and quality.

Agility

Agility is based on the ability of a system to change. For the moment, following generators are available:

  • Alfresco 2.9B, 3.0L, 3.1E
  • Liferay 5.1.1, 5.1.2
  • Chiba 1.1 

Quality

In computer science, quality is often associated to:

  • Documentation
  • Tests 
Documentation

Models can be documented by domain specialists while they are building them. SIDE/Alfresco can then generate the documentation in various formats, from javadoc-like for easy browsing to pdf documents for easy reading.

Tests

Tests are not generated for the moment. More information during Q3 2009.