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Conditional Rendering (Evaluators) Tutorials

Tutorials related to conditional rendering of content and operations. We call this evaluations and implementation of evaluators.

Sub-Component Evaluations

This tutorial explores Evaluations and introduces Evaluators, demonstrating how they are defined and used.

This tutorial assumes you have created a new SDK All-In-One project.

This tutorial creates a module that conditionally renders the Site Members component on the site dashboard. If the site has a certain name the Site Members component will not be rendered.

  1. Open the file aio/aio-share-jar/src/main/resources/alfresco/web-extension/site-data/extensions/aio-share-jar-example-widgets.xml and add the following module definition:

    <extension>
        <modules>
        ...
            <module>
              <id>Module  (Conditionally Hide Site Members)</id>
                <components>
                   <component>
                      <region-id>component-1-1</region-id>
                      <source-id>site/{site}/dashboard</source-id>
                      <scope>page</scope>
                      <sub-components>
                         <sub-component id="default">
                            <evaluations>
                              <evaluation id="HideIfTestSite">
                                <evaluators>
                                     <evaluator type="beans.evaluator" ></evaluator>
                                 </evaluators>
                                  <render>false</render>
                              </evaluation>
                             </evaluations>
                           </sub-component>
                       </sub-components>
                    </component>
                </components>
            </module>
        </modules>
    </extension>
                 
    

    Site dashboards are similar to user dashboards in that a new configuration is created from a preset for each new site. This means you need to target your Component using the site parameter.

    Note: The Evaluator type attribute must map to a Spring bean ID defined in the application context. Therefore, you need to create this Evaluator and define it as a Spring bean.

  2. In the aio/aio-share-jar/src/main/java/org/alfresco/tutorial package create a new class called SiteMembersEvaluator.

  3. In the Package Explorer double-click the file SiteMembersEvaluator.java to load it into the Eclipse editor (if not already showing).

  4. Replace the code currently in SiteMembersEvaluator.java, with the following content:

    package org.alfresco.tutorial;
    import java.util.Map;
    import org.springframework.extensions.surf.RequestContext;
    import org.springframework.extensions.surf.extensibility.impl.DefaultSubComponentEvaluator;
        
    public class SiteMembersEvaluator  extends DefaultSubComponentEvaluator
    {
         public boolean evaluate(RequestContext context, Map<String, String> params)
         {
                boolean result;
                String site = context.getUriTokens().get( "site" );
                if (site ==  null )
                {
                    site = context.getParameter( "site" );
                 }
                 result = (site !=  null && site.equals( "test-site" ));
                 return result;
         }
    }
    

    Note: At this point your code will be showing compile errors. You will need to link in the required Spring Framework libraries.

    The Spring bean compares the site name with the hard-coded string “test-site” (the site URL). The returned result will be true if the site URL matches the hard-coded string, causing the evaluator to be true, thus preventing rendering of the Site Members component.

  5. Open the aio/aio-share-jar/src/main/resources/alfresco/web-extension/aio-share-jar-slingshot-application-context.xml file and add the Spring Bean configuration as follows:

    ...
    <beans>
    	<bean id="beans.evaluator" class="org.alfresco.tutorial.SiteMembersEvaluator" />
    </beans>
    

    This configuration file maps the Java class to the Spring Bean ID.

  6. Build the project with maven. For example:

    /all-in-one$ ./run.sh build_start                                                
    
  7. Log in to Share and create two new sites: Test Site and Sample Site.

    As the new module has not yet been deployed, you will see the Site Members on both sites.

  8. Now go to the Module Deployment WebScript http://localhost:8080/share/page/modules/deploy.

  9. Deploy the new module, Module (Conditionally Hide Site Members), as described in previous tutorials.

    When you refresh the dashboard pages for the Test Site and Sample Site sites, you will see that the Site Members component is displayed for Sample Site, but not for the Test Site.

Improving your Sub-Component Evaluations code

This tutorial improves your previous code by eliminating the hard-coded site name.

In the previous tutorial you conditionally displayed a component based on a hard-coded string (the site URL). In this tutorial you will improve your code to pass the site URL as a parameter.

  1. Update the aio/aio-share-jar/src/main/resources/alfresco/web-extension/site-data/extensions/aio-share-jar-example-widgets.xml file so that the Evaluator is configured as follows:

    <evaluator type="beans.evaluator">      
       <params>
         <site>sample-site</site> 
       </params>
    </evaluator>   
    

    Note: The site to evaluate on is now passed as a parameter.

    When setting Evaluator parameters, the element name is the parameter key and the element value is the parameter value. All the configured parameters will be passed as the params argument when the evaluate method is called. Parameters can also accept token substitution – so you could set a parameter of:

    <site>{site}</site>
    

    This would pass in whatever the name of the site was. This would cause the Evaluator to pass, regardless of the site dashboard being displayed.

  2. Modify evaluate method in the SiteMembersEvaluator class as follows:

    public boolean evaluate(RequestContext context, Map<String, String> params)   
    {        
        boolean result;        
        String site = context.getUriTokens().get( "site" );        
        if (site ==  null )        
        {            
           site = context.getParameter( "site" );        
         }          
         String targetSite = params.get( "site" );        
         result = (site !=  null && site.equals(targetSite));        
         return result;   
    }     
    
  3. Rebuild and redeploy the JAR by running the project build file.

  4. Restart the application server.

    You will now see that when you visit Sample Site the Site Members component is hidden and when visiting the Test Site site the Site Members component is displayed.

Selecting an evaluator

This tutorial demonstrates how to select an evaluator.

This tutorial assumes you have at least one module deployed (it can be any of the modules you created in previous tutorials).

When a module is deployed it is evaluated before being processed. This evaluation determines whether or not the module is to be executed. By default the default evaluator, default.extensibility.evaluator is applied to determine if the module should be executed. However, it is possible to select a different evaluator to be applied, from a list of provided evaluators, or a custom coded evaluator. This can be done through configuration or through the Share Module Deployment user interface. This tutorial looks at how this is achieved in practice.

  1. In your browser navigate to http://localhost:8080/share/page/modules/deploy.

    Your modules and deployed modules will be displayed.

  2. Ensure that at least one module is deployed.

  3. Click on the deployed module and the Evaluator selector will appear to the right.

  4. In the Evaluator list box select the config.approval.evaluator evaluator.

    The evaluator properties will be displayed. In this case the config.approval.evaluator evaluator has the key apply. For this evaluator if the apply key is set to true the module will be processed. If, however the apply key is set to false the module will not be processed.

  5. Set the apply key to false.

  6. Click Update to register your changes.

  7. Click Apply Changes to have your changes saved to the database.

  8. Now, in another tab, browse to your dashboard to see if the module is applied or not.

    You will see that the module is no longer processed.

  9. Now back in the Module Deployment tab set the evaluator apply key to true.

  10. Click Update.

  11. Click Apply Changes.

  12. Navigate back to your dashboard tab and refresh.

    You will now see that your module is applied again.

You have seen how to use the Share Module Deployment page to set an evaluator for a module. This can also be achieved through configuration. In the module configuration file (extension-modules.xml in previous tutorials) you would add some XML to apply the evaluator:

...
<module>
    <id>Module (New Content)</id>
    <evaluator type="config.approval.evaluator">
        <params>
            <apply>false</apply>
        </params>
    </evaluator>
...

Creating a custom evaluator

This tutorial demonstrates how to create a custom evaluator. You will create a custom evaluator class, wire it into Alfresco as a Spring bean, and learn how to use evaluator properties.

This tutorial assumes you have completed previous tutorials. This tutorial assumes you will be using the admin account. For testing convenience it will be useful if you create another user account before starting this tutorial.

In the previous tutorial you saw that the provided evaluators can be applied to a module. Different modules can have different evaluators applied to them. As well as using the provided evaluators, it is possible to create your own custom evaluator. This tutorial shows how to create a simple custom evaluator.

  1. In the aio/aio-share-jar/src/main/java/org/alfresco/tutorial package create a new class called SimpleModuleEvaluator.

  2. Add the following code to the class:

    package org.alfresco.tutorial;
        
    import java.util.Map;
        
    import org.springframework.extensions.surf.RequestContext;
    import org.springframework.extensions.surf.extensibility.ExtensionModuleEvaluator;
        
    public class SimpleModuleEvaluator implements ExtensionModuleEvaluator
    {
        public static final String USER_PROP = "user";
        
        public boolean applyModule(RequestContext context, Map<String, String> evaluationProperties)
        {
            String currUser = context.getUser().getId();
            String targetUser = evaluationProperties.get(USER_PROP);
            return (targetUser != null && targetUser.equals(currUser));
        }
        
        public String[] getRequiredProperties()
        {
            return new String[] { USER_PROP};
        }
    }
    
  3. Open the aio/aio-share-jar/src/main/resources/alfresco/web-extension/aio-share-jar-slingshot-application-context.xml file.

  4. Add a bean for your new evaluator:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <!DOCTYPE beans PUBLIC '-//SPRING//DTD BEAN//EN' 'http://www.springframework.org/dtd/spring-beans.dtd'>
    <beans>
    	<bean id="beans.evaluator" class="beans.SiteMembersEvaluator" />
    	**<bean id="beans.simple.module.evaluator" class="org.alfresco.tutorial.SimpleModuleEvaluator" />**
    </beans>
    
  5. Rebuild your project using the Ant build script as done in previous tutorials.

  6. Restart your application server.

  7. In a browser tab navigate to http://localhost:8080/share/page/modules/deploy.

  8. Click on a deployed module, to display the list of evaluators.

  9. From the list of evaluators select the evaluator, beans.simple.module.evaluator.

    You will see the evaluator property “user”.

    Important: If you do not see the properties then try the following: close the Module Deployment tab. Create a new tab. Reload the Module Deployment page.

  10. Set the user evaluator property to admin.

  11. Click Update.

  12. Click Apply Changes.

  13. In another tab navigate to the admin dashboard.

    You will see that the module has been applied.

  14. Log out from the admin account and log into another account.

    On the new user account dashboard you will see that the module is not applied. This is because the module was applied conditionally to the user; the module is only applied for the admin user, as was set by using the evaluator property.

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