How to migrate content from Documentum WebTop to Alfresco? - alfresco

I want to migrate content with metadata from Documentum WebTop to Alfresco.
Can anyone please help me with the possible ways and some basic steps if possible.
For the moment I can think about using apache chemistry open CMIS API to connect to both repository and migrate content.
But is there any other simplest way available? or is there any tool available that we can use as is with slight modifications?
Your inputs will be really helpfull.
Thanks in Advance...

The simplest way possible is to use CMIS to read from Documentum and write to Alfresco, especially if you don't already know anything about Documentum. That way you only have to learn one API.
This assumes your version of Documentum supports CMIS.
If you have a high volume of data to move you will probably end up implementing some sort of queue or streaming approach, as Miki suggests. But that still doesn't require you to write DFC code unless CMIS falls short in some area.

There are various ways.
Easiest way could be using middle layer migration app/toolkit/platform and implement DFC client for reading to middle layer from Documentum.
On the write side of your middle layer you could easily use client that could consume REST api at the Alfresco target environment.
We've done this using Kafka as a middle layer using source & sink connectors (Confluent).

Related

How to display a query results from Open CMIS, Alfresco?

Newcomer to Alfresco and Web Development here, so bear with me. I've so far installed Alfresco and was able to use the Maven AMP archetype to create my own custom content model for the data I need to store in it. Now I need to access this data from an external site by querying the Alfresco repository.
I've followed what I can find on CMIS and was able to execute a query using curl and get the results I expect in a large XML stream. My colleague was having an uphill battle trying to interpret these results using Coldfusion. Now I searched around, and understand that to interpret these results and make the process a bit easier, it is better to use some kind of client like Open CMIS (or Chemistry, I'm still a bit confused on the terminology here).
We've so far tried the the PHP client, but received some errors from the xmlLoad function not reading 'nbsp' characters. PHP seemed like the easiest version to implement, though we're considering moving to Java if that works better. However, we've seen very scarce documentation on either end. Are there some better examples that we may have missed or maybe some other way to do this? Seems like this should be simple to implement, yet it's given us quite the stall due to the brick wall that Alfresco and CMIS seem to be.
If you don't want to use a library, the CMIS Browser Binding might work better for you. It returns JSON instead of XML.
Try:
http://<host>/alfresco/api/-default-/public/cmis/versions/1.1/browser?cmisselector=query&succinct=true&q=SELECT * FROM cmis:document
Shouldn't be a brick wall at all. Here are some resources:
The custom content types tutorial has a section on CMIS,
including CMIS queries which may be helpful to you even if you do not need custom types
The CMIS & Apache Chemistry book from
Manning is a good resource (disclosure: Florian and I co-authored it
along with another colleague, Jay Brown)
There are some Java examples on Google Code
There are additional resources and helpful links on the Alfresco CMIS page

Choose between Alfresco and Activiti for workflow solutions?

We are going to build custom workflow solution to our clients and most of the time we need to integrate it to their existing system predominately using Microsoft technologies e.g. Exchange Server and SharePoint.
Clients are expecting use workflow to computerize tasks from HR processes, product inventory management. They may or may not have their own CRM but some of them may already using Sharepoint for some processes and they are willing to move away if we can offer a more robust, flexible and economical solution.
I found Alfresco and Activiti very promising but not sure which should I adopt. From my research Alfresco is a full blown CRM with Cloud and workflow (using Activiti as engine) whereas Activiti is the engine on its own.
How should I judge when to go for Alfresco and likewise for Activiti?
TIA
Alfresco is, first and foremost, a repository. If you need a place to store files (either end-users storing files or applications storing files) you should consider using Alfresco as your repository for those files.
As you point out, Alfresco has embedded the Activiti workflow engine. This includes an abstracted service layer that wraps the engine so that, for many operations, when working with Java or server-side JavaScript, you don't need to know much about Activiti. (Obviously you do need to know how to define BPMN 2.0 process definitions to create the workflow).
So if you need to store files and you need to route those files in a business process, Alfresco's embedded workflow engine makes it very easy to do that.
If your primary use case is more general than that (ie, you don't always need to route files in a business process) then you may want to consider a standalone workflow engine. Alfresco can still participate in those workflows, of course, but if your primary use case isn't about files, why go to the trouble of setting up and maintaining a document repository?
In the end, there is no hard and fast rule here. The beauty is that both Alfresco and Activiti are open source. You can try them out, dig into the details, and decide for yourself what is the best fit.

Integrating Paypal API in Adobe Flex

I am writing a Flex project in which I need to communicate with Paypal via their APIs.
Really not sure how to start with - this is my first flex/air application.
I won't be using any server side technology (no Java, Php, .NET, Coldfusion) - all of the requests have to come from Flex and the response be sent back directly to the flex application.
Can someone please give me an example or something to start with. Let's say implementation of RefundTransaction API
in Flex.
Is it possible? If not, then what layer do I need to add to the technology stack?
Just need some pointers and I will pick it up from there.
Thanks
Definitely check out this article http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex_paypal.html
Essentially will need to figure this out myself as well. One of the BIG, BIG, BIG (big enough for ya) keys is to NOT include your API key anywhere in the application (or other sensitive info). This is one of the pitfalls with using a JIT language because it's based on a VM it can't be hidden very effectively.

alfresco database

How can we extend the Alfresco database? I need to add new tables to the existing database structure.
Does alfresco support this?
thanks in advance,
sri..
I think changing the alfresco db model is never a good solution. Some alfresco upgrades are made using Schema Upgrade Scripts, and that could get messy.
Have you tried to extend the alfresco content model?
Alfresco support some data types, allowing you to persist data. The Web Script framework allow you manipulate all your data inside your content model.
If your data is not suitable for a "content model", I think you should create a new database to hold your data.
Well, it is just a database. So you can create as many new tables as you want just like you would in any other database.
Obviously Alfresco won't use them because it doesn't know them, but you can query the tables as you like.
Advices from alfresco engineers are do not touch alfresco database. Please take a look at this page.
http://forums.alfresco.com/forum/general/non-technical-alfresco-discussion/where-alfreso-user-details-are-stored-i-alfresco
Changing alfresco database is not recommended.Content Model will be the good way.If such requirement is mandatory than,
You can use spring with hibernate for database connection.Properties which is required for connecting database are all ready declared inside alfresco-global.properties which is located inside "tomcat/shared/classes/".
For Spring bean injection you can declare beans inside any file which ends with "-context" which resides inside "tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco/extension" folder.
I will still recommend developer to use content model.
Depending on your use case, you may or may not need to play directly with the[/a] data base. I think your use case should fall in one of the following:
Use case 1:
You need to setup some metadata on folders and/or documents. You may have to nest multiple levels of nodes with different sets of custom metadata on each level.
You probably need to extend alfresco models in order to define custom document/folder models that best suits your business requirements. Please check jpotts' tutorial to learn how to do so.
Use case 2:
You need to define multiple lists with different sets of properties, those lists may or may not be linked to some content in your alfresco repo.
You probably need to learn more about alfresco sites' datalists, once you do so you may be interested in learning how to extend OOTB alfresco content model, jpotts' tutorial would be a good starting point, and then you should be checking this tutorial in order to learn how to manage datalists in stand alone aikau apps/share pages.
Use case 3:
You need to leverage a relational database in order to define and leverage you complex business logic that do not fall in any of the use cases defined above.
Are you sure you do not want to code a brand new app leveraging a technology that you are familiar with and have it communicate with alfresco using RESTfull api/cmis/.... ?
Are you sure alfresco is THE way to go ? If so, and you still want to have your custom complex business model in a bare relational database:
Please consider using a separate database instance / database for your custom extension, this way you would be sure any new patch/upgrade to alfresco that may change database structure won't affect your extension (or at least wont give you hard time upgrading it)
If you are really tied to only 1 database instance / 1 database schema, you will probably want to precede your table names with some prefix and hope none of alfresco future upgrades would have new tables with the same prefix. You probably also need to make sure to manage your database config wisely (connection pools ..) so neither your alfresco instance nor your custom extension have to starve. (make sure you close the connections you are opening)
Alfresco and Activiti come with a database. It is not good to access the database directly. Doing so can cause unexpected locking behavior or exhaust connection pools on the DB. This turns out into performance problems and other kinds of issues are possible too. In case you want to update Alfresco or Activiti you can do it through APIs. Easy to extend, easy to customize and hassle free integration capability are some of the reasons which has made http://loganwinson.doodlekit.com/blog/entry/4249216/top-things-to-know-about-alfresco-development>Alfresco web development popular among businesses.

Looking for example of reading a file and sending data to Sql using Biztalk

I am a newbie to the Biztalk world and up to now I am able to read file and send that data to Sql and vice-versa using an orchestration and by configuring physical ports in Biztalk Administration, but I want to receive and send data using the sql-adapter in a single orchestration, even if its not using single orchestration than also I want the way to do it, and also I want to understand all the functoids if any example available.
Any help would be appreciated...
It looks like you are in the very beginning stages of learning BizTalk. I would advise you to spend some time learning the basics. There are very good resources listed here
http://biztalk247.com/educate.aspx
http://biztalk247.com/learnmedia.aspx
There is virtual labs sections for various topics..spend a day or two going through all the example.
http://www.cloudcasts.net/ is another resource I'll recommend, where they got lot of small videos help you understand topics.
I'll ignore the advice from Ashish Jaiman, custom adapter development is not a trivial task and its for advanced BizTalk developers
I would start with the links below
1. http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/en/us/adapters-included.aspx
2. It is very easy to develop a custom adapter using SDK and Adapter Pack ( you can find more info on the same link on the right side under Adapters)
and also a great resource
http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/en/us/reviewers-guide.aspx

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