Providing Entity-Specific Local Services for Export/Import

Data handlers must often call your app’s local services to perform Export/Import-related tasks for its entities. When the Export/Import framework operates on entities (i.e., staged models), it often cannot manage important information from the entity’s local services alone. The Staged Model Repository framework removes this barrier by linking an app’s staged model to a local service. This gives you access to entity-specific methods tailored specifically for the staged model data you’re handling.

What kind of entity-specific methods are we talking about here? Your data handlers only expose a specific set of actions, like export and import methods. The Staged Model Repository framework provides CRUD operations for a specific staged model that local services don’t expose.

The staged model repository does not avoid using your app’s local services. It only provides an additional layer that provides Export/Import-specific functionality. Here’s how this works:

  • *StagedModelDataHandler: de-serializes the provided LAR file’s XML into a model.
  • *StagedModelRepository: updates the model based on the environment and business logic, providing entity-specific CRUD operations for Staging purposes (e.g., UUID manipulation).
  • Local services are called from the *StagedModelRepository and handle the remainder of the process.

Pretty cool, right? The first thing you must do is implement the StagedModelRepository interface. You’ll explore this next.

Understanding the StagedModelRepository Interface

Providing specialized local services for your app’s staging functionality lets you abstract the additional staging-specific information away from your data handlers. Before you can begin using the Staged Model Repository framework in your app, you must implement it.

The first important task is adding an @Component annotation section above the implementation class’s declaration. This registers the class as a staged model repository in the OSGi service registry. There are a few annotation attributes you should set:

  • immediate: activates the component immediately once its provided module has started.
  • property: sets various properties for the component service. You must associate the model class you wish to handle with this service so it’s recognized by the data handlers leveraging it. This property must set the fully qualified model class name like this: property = "model.class.name=FULLY_QUALIFIED_MODEL_CLASS".
  • service: points to the StagedModelRepository.class interface.

Next, you must implement the StagedModelRepository interface. Implementations vary greatly based on the app you’re implementing it for. There are two common cases you’ll experience when implementing its methods:

  • Methods that require additional Export/Import information injected before calling the local service.
  • Methods that can call the local service directly.

The BookmarksEntryStagedModelRepository.addStagedModel(...) method is an example where only calling the local service would not satisfy the staged model data handler’s needs (i.e., its UUID requirement). With the staged model repository layer, however, you can add export/import specific requirements on top of the present local services to serve your data handlers’ needs.

The method does this:

  • Sets the user ID and service context based on the PortletDataContext (used to populate the LAR file with your application’s data during the export process).
  • Sets the UUID, which is required to differentiate staged content between Sites.
  • Calls the entity’s local service.

Not every method implementation requires additional export/import information. For example, deleting Bookmarks Entries and deleting Bookmarks Entry staged models are functionally the same, so your staged model repository’s method would call the local service directly (e.g., BookmarksEntryStagedModelRepository.deleteStagedModel(...)).

Next you’ll learn about using a Staged Model Repository.

Using a Staged Model Repository

You can leverage a staged model repository by

  1. Creating a getter and setter method to make a StagedModelRepository object available to your entity.

  2. Calling the StagedModelRepository object to leverage its specialized export/import logic.

The getter and setter methods instantiate a StagedModelRepository object that the staged model data handler can use to access your entity’s CRUD operations. The setter method should have an @Reference annotation listed above its method signature. This injects the component service of the *StagedModelRepository into the staged model repository object. The component service was created when you set the @Component annotation in the implementation class.

Once you have access to the StagedModelRepository object, call it to use its specialized export/import logic. Now that you have access to CRUD operations via the StagedModelRepository object, you can skip the headache of providing a slew of parameters and additional functionality in the local service to do simple things like add a Bookmarks entry. The staged model repository abstracts these requirements away from the data handler.

Continue in the section to learn how to develop staged model repositories for your app.

« Creating Staged Model Data HandlersImplementing the Staged Model Repository Framework »
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