The basics to understand and create an Alfresco dashlet for the Share interface.

1. Introduction to Alfresco
Dashlets
for beginners
Jordi Vilaplana - Computer Engineer
@vjordi
gatasuna@gmail.com
http://jordiv.com

2. What is a dashlet?
"A dashlet is an application that appears in the Alfresco dashboard that presents information
to the user."
My Sites dashlet

3. How it works?

4. Files involved - Naming conventions
To create a dashlet we need to decide three things
● Dashlet's name
● HTTP method used to call the dashlet
● Presentation format for the response
All dashlet files start with the name of the dashlet

5. Files involved - Naming conventions

6. Files involved - Naming conventions
● mydashlet.get.desc.xml: Descriptor file
● mydashlet.get.js: Model file, where we put the logic
● mydashlet.get.html.ftl: View file for the presentation
● mydashlet.properties: Properties file

7. Files involved - One file at a time
mydashlet.get.desc.xml
<webscript>
<shortname>My Dashlet</shortname>
<description>A dashlet that does nothing</description>
<family>user-dashlet</family>
<url>/jordiv/components/dashlets/mydashlet</url>
</webscript>
● shortname: A user-friendly name
● description: A short description
● family: One of user-dashlet, site-dashlet or dashlet
● url: URL used to access the dashlet

8. Files involved - One file at a time
mydashlet.get.js
function main() {
model.name = "Jordi";
}
main();
All what we put inside the model variable will be available
in the view.

9. Files involved - One file at a time
mydashlet.get.html.ftl
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
new Alfresco.widget.DashletResizer("${args.htmlid}", "${instance.object.id}");
//]]
</script>
<div class="dashlet">
<div class="title">${msg("label.title")}</div>
<div class="body scrollable">
<p>${msg("label.hello")} ${name!''}!</p>
</div>
</div>
We can access the strings defined in the properties files
using the msg variable, and use variables from the model

10. Files involved - One file at a time
mydashlet.properties
label.title=My Dashlet
label.hello=Hello
We should put all the strings of our dashlet in the
properties file, so it can be easily translated
Support for more languages can be added creating more
properties files:
● mydashlet_ca.properties
● mydashlet_es.properties

11. Deploy to Alfresco Share
Copy all four files inside:
<ALF_HOME>/tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco/web-extension/site-
webscripts/com/jordiv/
Replace com/jordiv by your domain
Restart Alfresco Share or click the "Refresh Web Scripts" button (http:
//<server>:8080/share/page/index) and it will be available in user's
customize dashboard
This is not the best way to deploy a dashlet into Alfresco Share, just the
simplest one

12. What's next - Where to look now
Dashlets can be much more complex...
stats-dashlet:
http://code.google.com/p/stats-dashlet/
share-extras:
http://code.google.com/p/share-extras/
Alfresco Forums:
https://forums.alfresco.com/en/
Alfresco Wiki:
http://wiki.alfresco.com/