Tag: livelink web services

Code Demonstration Pages

Mostly this will consist of CWS or SOAP samples.My setup is against a CS16 computer with OTDS but when I test I make sure I can login as ‘Admin’.For ease I write this using the Visual Studio C# express.Note Java WSAPI clients has differing Syntax,my blog has some hints but for the most part it will be adaptable.Note programmers who work in this are encoraged to understand flow of your code into the livelink server see my posts on a proper way to interpret errors you are getting in your program.when time permits I will post a a flow diagram.

What is CWS ?   How do you DEBUG ?  How to look at a SOAP Envelope?
You just have to get the shell from OT for starting java dev. Java data structures are less forgiving in their get/sets than C# as well. Common misconceptions like to write java client livelink has to run in tomcat all that is not true,the server part of livelink can be anything and the webservices hosted either way and you can write .net clients and java clients

A few years back the OT community had a lot of programmers and they all contributed widely to communities.opentext.com .Very thoughtless of OT one fine morning they shutdown the site.Most of the code I wrote for public consumption I had in my personal workspace or google drive.This time I am just going to put them in my google drive.You just have to requests me to see it.Note I will not entertain any requests for obtaining software or consultation.I do this pro bono so I don’t lose touch.

How to Rename Nodes in C# Link Request by 
Workflow Service Example Link Request by
Categories/Attributes manipulation in C# Link Request by
Beginners parsing example to Categories/Attributes C# Link Request by
How do you manipulate Multi Valued Attributes( MVA) Java Snippet Link

 

 Answering for a KB thread 
Beginners Adding a Version to a Existing File JAVA Link Answering for a KB thread
How to set Mandatory Attributes in a move

(No Not as simple as it sounds:)

 Link Answering for a KB thread 
A C# example that shows SET parsing and MVA’s Link Answering for a KB thread 
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Oscript what is it what and would I use it?

Oscript is  a 4GL that is the basis of the application that the OpenText company adopted when they chose to market Livelink the Document Management System.It is safe to say that anything  the Livelink product lacks and  is a valid requirement can be coded in this language.The power of the the Oscript language takes root in the philosophy that was prevalent in the 60’s . Oscript is a superior offering to traditional OOP languages such as Java or C++ that is what Pundits say.

To a trained Oscripter one is able to understand how livelink code is received as well as change it.Now change to any COTS product comes at a cost.That is where the strategy as well as overall grasp in the product comes into mind.If the organization has decided for itself that it will spend the big bucks on livelink, one approach is to identify the ways to use it more.Where the organization is going to make mistakes is when it sees the cost of the “customization”.Many decision makers wrongly decide to go after fly by night programmers/vendors to be totally left in the fray.OT has a professional vested interest to sell customers more code and services so I have been in decisions where sales and marketing  will say do not customize livelink, but that is only half truth in them.If you buy these OT customizations, they are almost certain to be written in Oscript .In many cases it would have been written by senior Oscripters with thought on maintenance aspects  and upgrade ability as well.The same kind of service can be bought by other Oscript houses,in many cases these are extremely talented ex OT ‘ers. Many of the Professional Services modules sometimes outgrows the intents and becomes a marketable module as well.I have no knowledge and am just speculating on that.Once you have identified and  decided to use livelink the best avenue is to hire or ask services of reputed vendors.Modules that contained Oscript code that I used to code in 1999 (first time was on a livelink 8 system) livelink 9.1 version I can almost compile in the modern 10.5 version.My entire career was  and is fruitful because I tried to interact/collaborate and share with the OT team in the KB as well as smaller websites like Greg Griffiths.I was also able to mentor myself amongst very die hard oscripters that I knew from work and just by tracing code to find bugs that needed closure before OT could provide fixes.The knowledge of OT code also allows me to become a better application architect,administrator and integrator.

If the organization is strong in Java and .Net skills then note that the user interface at this time cannot be changed using those languages,however you may use exposed API’s to make functioning applications that use Livelink as the data store

Typical things organizations can and should do.

  1. Create implementations of Nodes just like Folder or Document if there is a need for it to be there.Just because OT shows you a “Addressbook” or “Contacts” module not every livelink installation in the world needs new subtypes.It is there if you want to use it ,if there is a complex business requirement that involves a “document” like implementation or a “folder” like implementation.Do search in the KB for such terms as “invasive customizations”, overrides,orphans,subclasses, customizationsRT, weblingo customization.
  2. Add Commands in the Nodes these are basically very easy to do in a short order.These two are taught very nicely in class as well.
  3. Put a lot of functioning logic into workflows also heard as event scripting.
  4. Write code so that livelink can interact with other systemslike using the POJO object.
  5. Write agents,distributed agents,expose to columns and facets api something that OT does not give you OOB.
  6. Extending SOAP and REST can only be done using Oscript.If you are a shop who has a need to program a integration using java or C# and you see a “GAP” in existing offering it is rather easy for a Oscripter to extend that.

Opentext Programmers have black boxed thing so that many things acts as internal API’s.For e.g we are able to do work without understanding how the “Node” itself is created in livelink. Other examples are the way Oscript can talk to the search system.

Not many people know that livelink uses a api to search.

Out of the world Oscript Offerings.

Christopher Meyer a Long OT veteran his website . It is un believable stuff that I have seen.

Patrick Vitali the maker of AnswerModules

IDE’s one can use

CSIDE a eclipse jar file for versions CS10.5

Livelink Builder CS10 and Versions prior.

Workflow Service Example to get a Attachment ID

****************************************** ***START UPDATE 10/3/2016*****************

LAPI and its client installer has become very hard to find. Moreover clients written in LAPI  in say Java/.NET will only work if your Livelink a.k.a Content Server is of version less than CS16.Readers who are new to LL programming is encouraged to read this to the approach and not to the exact lines of the code.What I mean is when you used to program in LAPI you were basically passing parameters to discrete calls by modelling it based on the webgui of livelink .SOAP based webservices called CWS is also the same,so if you do not try to do the task in the webgui and try to understand the business rules you will almost have no success in CWS too. OT is notorious for not putting fully functioning use cases and a walk through,so whenever possible I write code assuming the user has not worked in Livelink for X number of years and try to educate you all. Livelink,Content Server,Enterprise Server all of this has been Livelink’s marketing brand name changes over the years.CS i sused in many of the integrations like AGA, XECM, RMLINK  and you know you are programming against livelink if you see a link that looks like this  http(s)://somefriendlyURL/livelink.exe|cs.exe|llisapi.dll|cs.dll|livelink.In many places SAP/ SP /Exchange will be configured to talk to Archive Server and then they will use Livelink to read into archive server and turn that into LL objects for better presentment/RM and other aspects. The AGA product is moving away from LAPI(not sure totally or not) to REST API in LL.

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A fellow poster in KB is asking for help with Workflow Service examples. KB

Again my guess is the programmer does not no enough about how livelink handles workflow data structures so hopefully my article does some help. A frustrated developer in this case because there ain’t official samples from OpenText will start to trash the product which I hate to be happening. OT is busy with Core and Appworks(nothing was said about this at conference so is it already dead?) it seems and to this day I cannot understand why OT responses to WebReports is such a high pleasurable experience whereas everything else is basically a lukewarm thing.

I needed to brush my new java skills so I downloaded java samples from KB and started looking at it. It looks to me there is a lot of setup one does with java in C# alsl one does is type a little bit of code….Anyway the poster was using System.out so I am guessing he was a java programmer.There might be several better ways to do it but what I did was convert my old C# code to do that

which was here https://communities.opentext.com/communities/cs.dll?func=ll&objId=10153785&objAction=download&viewType=1.The site is free to the public.

 

  1. Workflows are Churned by a map created in livelink See Pic of the new 10.5 Map wf
  2. When you Click Initiate a WF Record is inserted with a pair of dataids called WorkID, SubWorkID in most simple workflows they are the same when you or livelink creates subworkflows they differ.
  3. By programming all you are doing is making sure you can get to the running instance and look at its internals
  4. It never seldom one changes the logic of map with CWS or LAPI programming.
  5. The livelink workflow carries several packages of the workflow,when you say you want Attachments you get a Container much like a folder to put documents,if you say Attributes you get that,if you put a Form template you get that and so on and so forthwf
  6. The above map is reproduced faithfully in a table that is how livelink knows the evaluate conditions etc, if you change the real master map then only instances churned form that will be affected not earlier ones
  7. Attributes and Forms are basically going to borrow/rely heavily on categories and attributes code
  8. The code for finding the Attachments in a Workflow Instance and downloading it.
  9. My code shows how to get one item in the WF Data Structure a.k.a Container ID .You will need to write recursive algorithms if there were folders within that particular id.

So You want to Change Categories/Attributes of a Object in livelink via CWS ?

****************************************** ***START UPDATE 10/3/2016*****************

LAPI and its client installer has become very hard to find. Moreover clients written in LAPI  in say Java/.NET will only work if your Livelink a.k.a Content Server is of version less than CS16.Readers who are new to LL programming is encouraged to read this to the approach and not to the exact lines of the code.What I mean is when you used to program in LAPI you were basically passing parameters to discrete calls by modelling it based on the webgui of livelink .SOAP based webservices called CWS is also the same,so if you do not try to do the task in the webgui and try to understand the business rules you will almost have no success in CWS too. OT is notorious for not putting fully functioning use cases and a walk through,so whenever possible I write code assuming the user has not worked in Livelink for X number of years and try to educate you all. Livelink,Content Server,Enterprise Server all of this has been Livelink’s marketing brand name changes over the years.CS i sused in many of the integrations like AGA, XECM, RMLINK  and you know you are programming against livelink if you see a link that looks like this  http(s)://somefriendlyURL/livelink.exe|cs.exe|llisapi.dll|cs.dll|livelink.In many places SAP/ SP /Exchange will be configured to talk to Archive Server and then they will use Livelink to read into archive server and turn that into LL objects for better presentment/RM and other aspects. The AGA product is moving away from LAPI(not sure totally or not) to REST API in LL.

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UPDATE 6/30/2016

Pls let me know if you can see this link this is a word document in my google drive
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5nwgBm7a2iwSkFDbjN2eEs1MDQ/view?usp=sharing
This second link is the C# file to the above word document
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5nwgBm7a2iwaFJ3Q0g2cmVoQzQ/view?usp=sharing

If people want the link they just have to requeest it from a google account it says.Free hosting sites spam me so much.
I say on the word document that you have to have a small idea of what you are doing Try doing it though the GUI to understand
Generic code can be written but since I am doing this pro bono I put the onus on the reader to understand the flow.It is repurposed from the KB code thatshows category and attributes

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UPDATE 1/25/2015-I LOST ALL CONTENT WHICH WAS STORED IN COMMUNITIES.OPENTEXT.COM.IF YOU ARE A STARTER READING THIS AND WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE ORIGINAL CONTENT DEPENDING ON TIME I HAVE I CAN SEND YOU SNIPPETS.LEAVE A COMMENT TO SUCH EFFECT.

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I have seen the new tutorials in livelink web services. It shows you to create a category and apply it all in one session.Several friends and people who are tasked with doing that would ask me sometimes whether one needs to create a category to use it?No in most livelink places Category Creation is a System Admin Chore.Further the categories play a direct role with the regions in the search engine infrastructure.So if one million objects had one million categories that livelink’s search regions page is never going to show.So when a tutorial from the Vendor incorrectly shows creation of the category right before using it it is tantamount to misleading on coming developers.I hope and stress that the OT tutorial would say something to that effect.Just take the tutorial as it is possible to create a category object in livelink.Further almost all programmers who are hired would be asked to change existing values in a a document or a folder.I had written a simple C# code that iterates over the categories and shows the node (Broken link to a OT livelink system I have made the link go to my google drive)properties as console echo statements almost in true oscript fashion.With some work to it was able to use that with the published samples form OT to change a StringValue.

I strongly urge readers/consumers to test this properly since it has almost been not tested nor do I intend to use it when somebody asks me to use it.It was written purely for self education.

The Code Bundle-A word Document,C# code and its app.config

(Broken link to a OT livelink system I have made the link go to my google drive)

There apparently looks like a lot of code but if you have the C# debugger and a little bit of time to yourself you should be able to crack it.Also this was the first code I wrote without bringing up builder and truly using livelink GUI and my upcoming knowledge of C# and its debugger.It is all good stuff makes it easier I think to code.

Having come from the LAPI world progressing my way into Oscript I think that CWS/EWS is a right step in integration of livelink with other systems.It is actually made programming much easier.I wish that OT would actually post samples that are relevant to a integrator’s job.

Subsequently many people have asked about manipulating SETS,I say use SETS only very rarely as it only has a good GUI.It is very difficult to write reports on.A SET is an entire Category inside another Category. I wrote a reply having used this in Oscript.Here’s a very Quick and Dirty Sample

 

Java Samples for Content Webservices

 
I LOST ALL CONTENT WHICH WAS STORED IN COMMUNITIES.OPENTEXT.COM.IF YOU ARE A STARTER READING THIS AND WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE ORIGINAL CONTENT DEPENDING ON TIME I HAVE I CAN SEND YOU SNIPPETS.LEAVE A COMMENT TO SUCH EFFECT.

Java Samples for Content Webservices are few and far in between.OT mainly puts samples in C# and many  a times I myself wonder if my company did not allow me to do that how I would do that in Java.In all truth OT ships a massive application called TreeView.java and TreeView.s ln for both languages .But the java thing takes a lot of setup especially if one was not keeping active in that world.However I used the NetBeansIDE to actually do most of that so I use that debugging environment to try all my java stuff Recently I debugged how to run a Live Report in livelink via C# webservices.Then somebody wanted me to show them how to do it via Java.One of these days I want to return to seeing if I can do all this command line with nothing else other than notepad.

Well I created two word documents, my guess is the poster did not speak english  very well,did not know livelink nor did know java to start with  .Hence I dumbed it enough for people to follow in almost any criteria.

 

Having livelink and its builder helps me in my endeavours and so Oscript remains my first love although I am getting farther and farther from it all

 

I have these files in the Communities website

If I had a LR taking a string parameter  how to write that in Java(C# is available aplenty)

If I had a LR taking a integer parameter how to write that in Java(C#is available aplenty)

There is a bug with Live Report Extensions.A poster in KB said that OT is aware of it.

Why Having LR Extensions(something that Webreports) company produces breaks Livereport calling with Webservices of OT

 

 

Is there a RecordsManagement_Service Object present in Web Service?

RECMAN

****************************************** ***START UPDATE 10/3/2016*****************

LAPI and its client installer has become very hard to find. Moreover clients written in LAPI  in say Java/.NET will only work if your Livelink a.k.a Content Server is of version less than CS16.Readers who are new to LL programming is encouraged to read this to the approach and not to the exact lines of the code.What I mean is when you used to program in LAPI you were basically passing parameters to discrete calls by modelling it based on the webgui of livelink .SOAP based webservices called CWS is also the same,so if you do not try to do the task in the webgui and try to understand the business rules you will almost have no success in CWS too. OT is notorious for not putting fully functioning use cases and a walk through,so whenever possible I write code assuming the user has not worked in Livelink for X number of years and try to educate you all. Livelink,Content Server,Enterprise Server all of this has been Livelink’s marketing brand name changes over the years.CS i sused in many of the integrations like AGA, XECM, RMLINK  and you know you are programming against livelink if you see a link that looks like this  http(s)://somefriendlyURL/livelink.exe|cs.exe|llisapi.dll|cs.dll|livelink.In many places SAP/ SP /Exchange will be configured to talk to Archive Server and then they will use Livelink to read into archive server and turn that into LL objects for better presentment/RM and other aspects. The AGA product is moving away from LAPI(not sure totally or not) to REST API in LL.

**********************************************END UPDATE****************************

In this the poster is asking whether this service exists.I have noticed very few good code examples in java and webservices for livelink so this is just an attempt to help.

What I am trying to show the user is I have deployed my webservices in IIS  but I am writing client code in java

This link was very helpful in my endeavor

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3588616/java-webservice-client-best-way

Common Sense tidbits

  1. CWS/EWS is a bunch of files ending in.svc.It takes less than 10 mins to expose a webservice in IIS.Probably the same amount of time in Tomcat
  2. If livelink has Records Management module and Physical Objects module then the installer will lay the svc files in the same hierarchy as the CWS/EWS
  3. Exposing the CWS/EWS will not have code for RM or PO you have to separately expose them or merge them as I do.
  4. The exposed web service should talk to a livelink server on its lapi port.Web services and livelink servers can be on two machines but it is easier to test and maintain if they are the same.The web.Config will have localhost and 2099  which means the webservices will call a livelink server using that.Now you can install livelink to listen to any free port it is just that most people would leave defaults.
  5. When using java make sure you understand classpaths and the jax-ws mumbo jumbo really well,in .NET it is very easy to do things
  6. Once webservices are deployed either in IIS or Tomcat you can mix and match client code.You could write a .NET client to talk to the Tomcat web service or as in my example you can use a java client to talk to IIS deployed web service.
  7. Rather than thinking that livelink client programming can be done entirely by reading javadocs ask the organization for a livelink web account and understand that the api’s are  just making use of the livelink business rules .So 9 times out of 10 you could understand the parameters by watching how a create request,update request etc happens.An org can severely change the way livelink works,its add screens etc so you need a good understanding of how livelink is used in your organization.
  8. Content Server is livelink.There is no escaping that.Old wine in new bottle.I say that in a positive way as the oscript engine is much better.Any day better for DMS & RM & PO activities.Very strong architecture from ground up

Link to Creating RESTful web services in livelink

This is a very good article very insightful for people like me who don’t really  understand hyped up words  in use.

http://ednortonengineeringsociety.blogspot.com/2009/08/creating-restful-web-services-with.html

People at OT has said that their plan is to support web services ,oscript and RESTful

So I am going to try and see if I can make some good easy to use things.Looks easier than CWS to me

I know my oscript so the rest is basically some crafted query strings .I s that what Rest is ?

BTW this is free publicity to the original blogger.If I should not be posting links let me know I will remove it.