Dynamic Extensions for Alfresco

Rapid development of Alfresco repository extensions in Java. Deploy your code in seconds, not minutes. Life is too short for endless server restarts.

Dynamic Extensions adds an OSGi container to the Alfresco repository, enabling live deployment of Java code, with no need to restart the server. Alfresco itself is not "OSGi-fied" in any way; the OSGi container runs on top of the core Alfresco platform.

Installing Dynamic Extensions

Dynamic Extensions is distributed as an Alfresco Module Package (AMP).

• Download the latest Dynamic Extensions AMP.
• Use the Module Management Tool to install the AMP in the Alfresco repository of your choosing.
• After restarting Alfresco, open the Control Panel: http://localhost:8080/alfresco/service/dynamic-extensions/.
• Accessing the Control Panel requires an admin account.

Supported Alfresco versions

Dynamic Extensions is developed and tested against:

• Alfresco Enterprise 4.1
• Alfresco Enterprise 4.2
• Alfresco Community 5.0

Dynamic Extensions is also known to work on:

• Alfresco Enterprise 3.4
• Alfresco Enterprise 4.0
• Alfresco Community 4.0
• Alfresco Community 4.2

Example extension code

This example Web Script examines a node and passes information to a Freemarker template:

@Component
@WebScript
public ExampleWebScript {

  @Autowired
  private NodeService nodeService;
  
  @Uri("/show-node")
  // Example: http://localhost/alfresco/service/show-node?nodeRef=workspace://SpacesStore/12345
  public Map<String, Object> displayNodeName(@RequestParam NodeRef nodeRef) {
    Map<String, Object> model = new HashMap<String, Object>();
    model.put("properties", nodeService.getProperties(nodeRef));    
    return model; // Model is passed to Freemarker template.
  }
}

Note that this is an annotation Web Script. These types of Web Script are configured through Java annotations instead of *.desc.xml descriptors. Annotation Web Scripts are similar to Spring MVC's annotation-based controllers.

Here's the accompanying Freemarker template fragment:

<table>
  <#list properties?keys as name>    
    <tr>
      <th>${name}</th>
      <td>${properties[name]!''}</td>
    </tr>
  </#list>
</table>

This is all the code that is required; there's no need for Spring XML config or Web Script XML descriptors. Hot-reloading and reducing configuration overhead are not particularly novel concepts in the Java development world at large. Essentially, Dynamic Extensions modernizes the development of Alfresco repository extensions.

The example above may be trivial, but the point is that, behind the scenes, services are still wired together through Spring and handled by the Web Script framework. Conceptually there is no real difference between a Dynamic Extension and a regular Alfresco extension. There's just less overhead and more convenience.

Creating your own Alfresco extensions

The example Dynamic Extension provides a good starting point for creating your own extensions.

Clone the example repo and explore it. Here are some pointers to get you going:

• Annotation-based Web Scripts: First example and another example.
• Annotation-based Action example and a Web Script that invokes the action.
• Annotation-based Behaviour example.
• All examples.

See also: Gradle plugin for building your own repository extensions

Barcelona 2013 presentation

One hour presentation on using and exploring Dynamic Extensions for Alfresco