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Alfresco

The Alfresco connector only operates in write mode. For read operations from Alfresco, use the CMIS connector.

Batch API Required

This connector was built to work in tandem with the Simflofy Batch API to offer a more performant migration.

If you're planning to use the Transparent Content Services for Manage In Place, this API is already included in that module. However, it can be installed separately for standard migrations.

Alfresco Authentication

Alfresco Webscript Auth Connector

This connector uses basic authentication to retrieve a ticket from Alfresco. That ticket will be used to perform operations. The authenticating user will need the rights to access the folder you're attempting to write to.

  • Name: The name of the authentication connection
  • Username: Name of the authenticating user
  • Password: Password of the authenticating user
  • Service URL: Url to contact Alfresco. Takes the form

(Alfresco)/alfresco/service

Discovery Connector

  • Name: Unique Name for the Discovery Connection to identify it in the UI.
  • Authentication Connection: The authentication connection you want to search for
  • Ignore Types (comma delimited list): Comma delimited list of types to ignore. Note that you can have regex as well. So to ignore all types with "workflow" in the name, you will enter(.)workflow(.) into the ignore types text box.
  • Alfresco Ticket Key: The ticket key is used to generate credentials.

Integration Connection

Batching

The Alfresco Connector requires batching, meaning it will batch up documents before attempting to upload them. Batch size is set under the Advanced Options under the Details job tab. When using a connector that requires batching, the value will be automatically set to 50.

When batching is on, batch ids will be generated based on the job run id, which is the job id plus the timestamp of the current run. The batch number will then be added to that. Batch IDs will be prepended to parent folders of each document in a batch leading to the following:

/1612814334091_1624028461422_1/parentFolder/myfile.txt

  • Connection Name: Name the Connector
  • Description: Add a description for the connector
  • Authentication Connection: Alfresco Auth connector
  • Secondary Auth Connection: For Alfresco, the secondary authentication will route the file content to different stores. Available Options are:
    • Amazon S3 - Requires Alfresco instance with the Amazon S3 Module
    • Azure Blob - Requires Alfresco instance with the Azure Blob Connector
    • None - Binaries will be output to the filesystem if Include Binaries in the Details tab is checked.

Job Configuration

  • Alfresco Path: The output folder path in your alfresco repository.

  • Binary Output Path: Binary Output Path for Azure or S3. If populated and no Secondary Auth Connection is present, will output to the filesystem.

  • Create Content Url Always: Only used for Manage In Place (MIP). Simflofy will generate an Alfresco Content Url based on a number of configuration:

    • Be aware that these are checked in order

      • If the content service connector is set in the Details tab the content url will be

      connectorId://documentId

      • If the document has the metadata field simflofy.contenturl. It will be checked for validity and used.
      • If the secondary auth connection is for Amazon S3 the content url will be

      s3v2://documentId

      • If the secondary auth connection is for Azure Blob the content url will be

      azb://documentId

      • If none of these are true, the content url will be

      store://documentId

Simflofy Batch API for Alfresco

Installation

If you're planning on using Transparent Content Services, the batch api is included in that module.

Compatability

The batch API is only compatible with Alfresco v6.2 and higher.

  1. Retrieve the latest batch api version from Simflofy Launch
  2. Stop Alfresco
  3. Inside the Tomcat folder which contains ACS (referred to as TOMCAT_HOME), add the following folder if it does not exist /modules/platform
  4. Place the batch api jar in the folder
  5. Start Alfresco

Configuration Options

These properties can be added to the alfresco-global.properties file

  • batchapi.behaviours.disableall: If this is false, reattempts to import data can cause an infinite loop.
  • batchapi.rules.disableall: If this is false, reattempts to import data can cause an infinite loop.
Rules and Behaviors

Both of these values must be true to avoid conflicts with Alfresco's content store rules and behaviors

  • batchapi.jsonthreadcount: The amount of threads to delegate to the json batch integration queue. Default: 20
  • batchapi.batchthreadcount: The amount of threads to delegate to the batch integration queue. Default: 50
  • batchapi.userid: The Alfresco User to perform the Batch API actions as. Must be a valid Alfresco user. Default: admin
  • batchapi.licensekey: This property is Required and does NOT have a default. The license key of the Simflofy instance you are connecting to. This does not have a default. Jobs will not write batches to Alfresco if this value is not set with a valid license key.
Versioning

Alfresco turns on the initial version and auto versioning by default. However, this can cause Alfresco to have an incorrect initial version, such as version 0.1, which will lead to incorrect numbering of your version series. In order to make versioning work with the Batch API, add the following mapping to your job

(source type) ----Aspect Mapping----> cm:versionable

Or, as an alternative, disable some of Alfresco versioning features with the following

version.store.initialVersion=false
version.store.enableAutoVersioning=false
Alfresco configuration for better ingestion speeds

Disable subsystems, precursor for bulk ingestion

notification.email.siteinvite=false
alfresco.jmx.connector.enabled=false
index.subsystem.name=noindex
ooo.enabled=false
jodconverter.enabled=false
notification.email.siteinvite=false
smart.folders.enabled=false
system.thumbnail.generate=false
extracter.RFC822.enabled=false
extracter.TikaAuto.enabled=false

Access and remote protocols

ftp.enabled=false
system.webdav.servlet.enabled=false
cifs.enabled=false
transferservice.receiver.enabled=false
syncService.mode=OFF

Workflow

system.workflow.engine.activiti.enabled=false
system.workflow.engine.jbpm.enabled=false

Indexing

index.recovery.mode=NONE
index.tracking.disableInTransactionIndexing=true

Auditing

audit.enabled=false
audit.alfresco-access.enabled=false
audit.filter.alfresco-access.default.enabled=false

Repo and file management

system.content.caching.cacheOnInbound=false
home.folder.creation.eager=false
system.enableTimestampPropagation=false
system.usages.enabled=false
activities.feed.notifier.enabled=false

alfresco.cluster.enabled=false

db.schema.update=true

system.acl.maxPermissionChecks=100000
system.readpermissions.bulkfetchsize=100000

Transparent Content Services(TCS) and Manage In Place(MIP)

Transparent Content Services is an Alfresco module that enables Manage in Place capabilities using Simflofy's content services. Meaning, you can manage multiple repositories through Alfresco, without having to move the file contents.

In the following sections we'll walk you through how to add TCS to your Alfresco instance, and configure jobs to create MIP Content. The addition of MIP will have no effect on your current content.

If you prefer to follow a walk through, one can be found here

note

If you're currently using an extension that extends or adds to the existing StoreSelectorAspectContentStore there will be functionality and compatibility issues as TCS Overrides that service.

TCS: How it works

TCS works as a new content store that leverages Simflofy's REST API to push and pull content.

Transparent Content Services (TCS)
**Left**: Standard Alfresco Content Store | **Right**: TCS Content Store

By extending Alfresco's StoreSelectorAspectContentStore, we give users the ability to change the location of the content managed by Alfresco.

Alfresco Aspect Content Store

Similar to the standard store selector store, a user can change the content store of an item by simply adding an aspect and changing a property.

Content Store Selector

This plugin goes far beyond adding new Filesystem store locations. TCS provides access to any repository listed in your Content Service Connections

Configured connections from Simflofy will be added to the list of available stores in the cm:storeName property.

TCS: FAQS

How do we get content into Alfresco?

There are several ways to add the content to Alfresco for TCS to manage. Two easy and popular methods are:

Use a Simflofy job to connect to your source repository and output content to Alfresco via a CMIS connector.

  1. This method is good for smaller batches of content (100s and thousands but not hundreds of thousands)
  2. Fast set up and ingestion.

Use a Simflofy job to connect to your source repository and output to BFS format. Leverage the BFS import tool to create content in Alfresco

  1. Ideal for very large data sets.

Remember, we are only importing information about the location of the content and some metadata. The import process is very fast.

How are my Alfresco users affected by this change?

They won't be. All the standard content features are available. Meaning users can still preview, download, and update content from within Alfresco.

What if I don't want users to change content in my remote system?

TCS provides an option to implement read-only mode. This is done when configuring a new store (see below). You also must set the deep delete option if you want to allow Alfresco (and Simflofy) to delete source content.

TCS Installation

Prerequisites
  1. Alfresco Enterprise version 6.2+
  2. Alfresco Record's Management/Alfresco Governance Services
  3. Simflofy 3.X+
  4. TCS Plugin Jars (available on Launch)

Files

  • transparent-content-services-share.jar
    • This file contains the Share customizations for Alfresco.
  • transparent-content-services-platform.jar
    • This file contains the core repository extensions and the content services required to communicate to Simflofy

Installation Process

Inside the Tomcat folder which contains ACS (referred to as TOMCAT_HOME), add the following folders if they do not exist

/modules/platform
/modules/share
  1. Stop Alfresco
  2. Place the transparent-content-services-platform in [TOMCAT_HOME]/modules/platform
  3. Place the transparent-content-services-share.jar in [TOMCAT_HOME]/modules/share
  4. Once you have completed the configuration (see the next section), start Alfresco.

TCS Logging

In order to see all the logging for TCS in the alfresco.log or catalina.out file the following appender must be added to Alfresco's log4 properties.

com.fikatechnologies

The options are info, debug, or trace, in order of granularity.

TCS Configuration and Properties

The properties marked as required should be added to your alfresco-global.properties file. The rest are optional configuration

  • tcs.user: The Simflofy username. Default: admin

  • tcs.pass: The Simflofy password. Default: admin

  • tcs.url: The full url to Simflofy's simflofy-admin application. Default: http://localhost:8080/simflofy-admin

  • tcs.read.timeout: The amount of time the connection to Simflofy should wait on a read operation before timing out.

  • tcs.connect.timeout: The amount of time the attempt to make a connection toSimflofy will wait before timing out.

  • tcs.defaultStoreName: The name that will be given to the default filestore. Should just be, DefaultStoreName except for special circumstances.

  • tcs.connectorIds: A comma(,) delimited list of content service connector IDs that should be included in TCS.

Setting up MIP Jobs in Simflofy

Once all the configuration is out of the way, setting up MIP Jobs only requires a few additions to the standard job configuration

  1. In the Job Details tab, a content service connector for the source repository must be set.
  2. In the Job Details tab under Advanced Settings, Include Binaries should not be checked.
  3. In the Alfresco Output Specification, Create Content Url Always must be checked.
  4. The following mappings are required for all MIP jobs. 
{"mappings":[{"sourceType":"TEXT","watch":"false","mappingType":"CALCULATED_FIELD","targetType":"TEXT","source":"'#{rd.fileName}'","position":0,"target":"cmis:name"},{"sourceType":"TEXT","watch":"false","mappingType":"ASPECT_MAPPING","targetType":"TEXT","source":"Document","position":0,"target":"cm:storeSelector"},{"sourceType":"TEXT","watch":"false","mappingType":"CALCULATED_FIELD","targetType":"TEXT","source":"'#{rd.simflofyContentServiceConnector}'","position":0,"target":"cm:storeName"}]}

They can be added all at once using the Import Mappings button. Just paste and save.

Job Mapping

If simflofy was run with initialize.bootstrap=true as of 3.1, this mapping will be included as a preloaded Job Mapping.

TCS Admin Console

The admin console for tcs can be found at

[alfrescoUrl]/alfresco/service/enterprise/admin/tcs-admin

It will display the currently configured content stores which are available for MIP operations, as well as provide a chart breaking down the number of documents stored in each Simflofy content store.

The Connect To Simflofy button will re-run the process of building the store selector and adding content stores. This can be useful if you need to alter the Content Service Configuration for a store (see the properties tabs)

If no content stores appear when loading the page or after hitting the button, there is an issue with your configuration, and you should check the logging to see if any notable errors showed up. Make sure you have your TCS Logging set.

It also has a button which will clear the current cache.

Need help integrating Alfresco? We can help.

Last updated on by rjosefsberg