Alfresco Summit 2014 (London) Though best practice is to leverage Alfresco through the well defined API's, it can be useful to understand the internals of the repository so that your development efforts are the most effective. A deep understanding of the repository will help you to evaluate performance bottlenecks, look for bugs, or make contributions. This session provides an overview of the repository internals, including the major components, the key services, subsystems, and database. We then provide an example where we leverage the repository in a micro-service architecture while building Alfresco's future cloud products and show how the different parts of the repository interact to fulfill requests. http://summit.alfresco.com/london/sessions/diving-deep-alfresco-repository https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAE9UjC0xxc

1. Deep Dive – Alfresco Core Repository
… embedded in a micro-services style architecture!
Credits:
h+p://www.redbullstratos.com/
Jan Vonka
London, October 2014

2. Intro
Jan Vonka!
• Senior Software Engineer @ Alfresco
• Core Repo’ Services
• Cloud & Hybrid Platform
• Fly balloons

3. Deep Dive: Core Repository
!
• Repository Architecture!
• Diving in to the core …
• Micro-Services overview !
• Intelligent Process App example …

4. Alfresco …
ContentContext
Collaborate
Control
Connect
Cloud
Customise
Configure

5. Why should you dive in ?
• Spectrum of solutions!
• Out-Of-The-Box => Configure => Integrate
• Extend => Customise => Embed (“modular”)
Gain deeper understanding!
• Develop, test & contribute
• Troubleshoot issues – functional, perf’, …

6. Caveat
• Use the Alfresco APIs & SDKs!
• Well-defined, supported, On-Premise & Cloud
• CMIS 1.1 & REST
• Alfresco SDK 2.0 (Maven + Java)
• Mobile SDK (iOS & Android)
• Custom (JavaScript or Java)!
• Repo extensions – WebScripts + (new) Services
• Content Models - Policies & Behaviours

7. Repository Architecture - overview

8. Repo Architecture Overview
Web
Apps
Mobile
Apps
Desktop
Apps
REST
/
WebScripts
CMIS
Protocols
Sync
Share
Mobile
SDK
Alfresco
Office
Services
(AOS)

9. Anatomy of the Repo
!Alfresco Repository
Remote APIs (CMIS & WebScripts)
Subsystems
Core Foundation Services
DB Storage (Tables)
Protocols (WebDAV, SPP, IMAP, FTP, CIFS, SMTP, LDAP…)
Content Models + Behaviours
Collaborative Services
Transactions + Security
ThirdParty Libraries & Frameworks: including Spring Framework+Security / MyBatis (JDBC) / Solr+Lucene / Hazelcast
Content/Object Storage (Binary Files)
Search Storage (Indexes)

10. Diving in …

11. Alfresco *Services (some)
FileFolder
WebScript
Script
&
Template
(eg.
JS
&
FM)
Content
&
Mimetype
Node
&
Version
Permission,
AuthenOcaOon
&
Authority
DicOonary
&
Namespace
CMIS
Protocols
(WebDAV,
SPP,
IMAP,
FTP,
CIFS,
SMTP,
LDAP…)
Site
CheckOutCheckIn
&
Lock
Copy
Thumbnail
&
RendiOon
Rule
&
AcOon
AcOvity
&
SubscripOon
Transform
(+
Metadata
Extract
&
Embed)
Workflow
(AcOviO
or
JBPM)
Person
&
Ownable
TransacOon
Import
&
Export
QuickShare
Tagging
Audit
&
A+ribute
Category
Search
(Index
&
Query)
Tenant
&
RepoAdmin
ContentUsage

12. Artifacts & Projects
• Maven SDK!
• Eclipse Projects!
• ….
• Remote-API
• Repository
• Data-Model
• Core

13. Java Services
• Refer to:!
• Service Registry (ServiceRegistry.java)
• Spring Configuration (*-context.xml)
• public-services-context.xml
• core-context.xml
• Foundation services include:!
• NodeService
• ContentService
• SearchService
• ….

14. Spring config: *-context.xml
core-context.xml
<bean id="checkOutCheckInService" class="org.alfresco.repo.coci.CheckOutCheckInServiceImpl" init-method="
init”>
<property name="nodeService" ref="nodeService" />
<property name="versionService" ref="versionService" />
<property name="ruleService" ref="ruleService" />
<property name="lockService" ref="LockService" />
<property name="ownableService" ref="OwnableService" />
<property name="copyService" ref="CopyService" />
<property name="authenticationService" ref="authenticationService" />
<property name="fileFolderService" ref="fileFolderService" />
<property name="policyComponent" ref="policyComponent" />
<property name="behaviourFilter" ref="policyBehaviourFilter" />
…….
model-specific-services-context.xml
<bean name="fileFolderService" class="org.alfresco.repo.model.filefolder.FileFolderServiceImpl" init-method="
init" parent="abstractBaseCopyService">
<property name="namespaceService"><ref bean="namespaceService" /></property>
<property name="dictionaryService"><ref bean="dictionaryService" /></property>
<property name="nodeService"><ref bean="nodeService" /></property>
<property name="copyService"><ref bean="copyService" /></property>
<property name="searchService"><ref bean="admSearchService" /></property>
<property name="contentService"><ref bean="contentService" /></property>
<property name="mimetypeService"><ref bean="mimetypeService" /></property>
……

15. Models & Definitions …
• Content Models!
• contentModel.xml
• dictionaryModel.xml
• … *Model.xml
• Security & Permissions!
• public-services-security.xml
• permissionDefinitions.xml

16. Data Access Objects (DAOs)
• Java Interfaces & Implementations!
• Package: org.alfresco.repo.domain
• *DAO.java, *DAOImpl.java
• MyBatis SQL mapper!
• (fully) since 3.2.x - also used by Activiti
• mostly common ANSI SQL
• dialect-specific SQL (extended config builder)
• see *SqlMap.xml
• DomainTestSuite!
• see DAO unit tests

17. DB types
!!!!!!!
Enterprise
Community
(*) subject to change - refer to certified stacks
(**) dev/test only - see for example Alfresco SDK 2.0 (Maven-based) or Activiti
(**)

18. Alf_* DB schema (partial)
!
Store
Node
Node_ProperOes
Node_Aspects
Child_Assoc
(parent/child)
Node_Assoc
(source/target)
Qname
Content_Data
Namespace
TransacOon
Server
Locale
Encoding
Mimetype
Content_Url

19. Alf_* DB schema

20. Micro-Services - overview

21. Micro-services overview
• Architectural style!
• suite of “small” independently deployable services
• each is simple & specific – do “one” thing well
• Distributed services & data!
• separate loosely-coupled process
• collaborate - (light-weight) communication
• In theory, can be …!
• independently: develop, deploy, scale, manage
• heterogeneous teams, languages, stacks, protocols

22. Micro-services overview (cont)
• Benefits & drawbacks!
• Dev-QA-Ops spectrum
• people, ownership, process, automation
• Continuous: Integration, QA, Deployment, Monitoring
• Encourages modular structure
• API contracts & versioning
• more moving parts, network hops (latency), …

23. Repo -> “micro” services
Remote
APIs
Core
Repository
Services
Search
Server
(eg.
Solr)
TransformaOon
Server
Process
Server
Search
Transform
Workflow

24. Micro-service – Java example
• HTTP+JSON, Java, RESTful, !
• JAX-RS
• Content + Context (Nodes & Metadata)
• Dropwizard + Metrics!
• Jetty, Jersey, Jackson
• Spring Boot / MVC / Framework!
• Jetty (or Tomcat), Jackson, Metrics …

25. Repo Core – Hello World #1
GET http://localhost:9080/alfresco/stores!
!
[!
{"storeRef":"archive://SpacesStore", "nodeRefId":"0add797f-9145-43e4-80d5-
ba7b5fc254fa"},!
{"storeRef":"system://system","nodeRefId":"aab26f2c-8bdd-465e-90ab-396d9187caa4"},!
{"storeRef":"user://
alfrescoUserStore","nodeRefId":"0227c38d-77b7-4a31-922f-6040e8d39d1a"},!
{"storeRef":"workspace://lightWeightVersionStore","nodeRefId":"7688b848-ba24-4a03-
bb45-75ea6c7e51c5"},!
{"storeRef":"workspace://
SpacesStore","nodeRefId":"79fd9404-1f12-4999-8d92-58df9309558b"},!
{"storeRef":"workspace://version2Store","nodeRefId":"7cefae72-7809-4869-94cc-d65e37a762f1"}
!
]!
List stores & root nodes

26. Repo Core – Hello World #2
Repo Node Browser

27. Micro-service articles
• Some examples ….!
• http://martinfowler.com/articles/microservices.html
• http://highscalability.com/blog/2014/4/8/microservices-not-a-free-lunch.
html
• http://highscalability.com/blog/2014/7/28/the-great-microservices-vs-
monolithic-apps-twitter-melee.html
• ….

28. Smart Process Apps – example

29. Smart (Intelligent) Process Apps
• Process-centric, Task-based!
• Collaborative & Social !
• Case Management - Adaptable & Dynamic!
• Context, Content, Control …!
• Configurable (eg. per-tenant, per-app)!
• Simple + Smart J!

30. SPA Platform Services (example)
!
Content / Metadata
Workflow
(Process / Task)
Transform
Search
(Index / Query)
Case/Review APIs + Services
Identity
Mgmt
(Auth)
App Def
(Config)
Streaming
Services
Content Storage
Metadata DB
Workflow DB
Search Indexes
Other DBs
(RDBMS, NoSQL, …)
App1
App3
App2
App4

31. Smart Process App (example)
!

32. Recap + Q&A

33. Recap
• Repository Architecture!
• Diving in deeper to the core!
• Micro-services overview!
• Intelligent Process App example!
• Further details …!

34. Questions & Feedback
• Thank you J!
!

35. Further details
• Source (SVN)!
• Test code – unit & system!
• http://docs.alfresco.com!
• Add-Ons & Extensions!
• Wiki, Forums, Blogs, JIRA!
• Developer books!
• Training courses!