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What are the options for implementing a custom UI for searching the alfresco repository? I have found only customizations of the Web Scripts share which is more of a WCM thing. Could it be implemented and expanded for Custom Model searches from imported CMIS data? Has anyone built a custom UI for communicating with the 5.0 or 5.1 alfresco repository? Any help or search paths would be greatly appreciated.

Jon Sherwood
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    Did you try reading John Newton's recent blog post on the topic - https://www.alfresco.com/blogs/building-a-new-application-developer-experience/ ? – Gagravarr Aug 01 '16 at 20:14

2 Answers2

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It's up to you, really.

Latest versions of Alfresco have a nice and documented REST API, which you can consume. Additionally, web scripts you might create are also easily accessible with a simple HTTP request, so customizing is not a problem.

https://api-explorer.alfresco.com/api-explorer/

The latest thing is what Gagravarr already mentioned, Angural2 based components (which also speak with the above mentioned REST API).

Lista
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Here is a blog post with almost the exact title as your question. The short answer is you can use whatever you want to build a custom app on top of Alfresco.

Yes, there are Angular2 components that will be available some day, but for now, they rely on REST API changes that have not been shipped in any stable release of Alfresco, including Community Edition. They require an early access release (201606-EA or higher) which you should not run in production.

So from whatever language you decide to use you'll be making REST calls. But to which API? There are many. Here is the order of preference you should use when selecting an API for Alfresco.

  1. CMIS. Grab a library from Apache Chemistry.
  2. Public REST API, see http://docs.alfresco.com/5.1/pra/1/topics/pra-welcome.html
  3. Out-of-the-box web scripts marked "Public". See http://localhost:8080/alfresco/s/index for a list, then click down to an individual web script until you see its lifecycle.
  4. Your own custom web scripts
  5. Out-of-the-box web scripts with no lifecycle or something other than public.

That last one is truly a last resort. Don't do it without being fully aware that you are writing against an API that will change without warning.

Jeff Potts
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  • Because CMIS is an industry standard and because there are many libraries available to make it easier on the dev to issue those calls. – Jeff Potts Aug 06 '16 at 13:19