CMS

A Content object is identified by its path which is expressed as an URI of the form /Labels/Common/CustomerName. The first / represents the root of the CMS whereas the rest forms a recursive tree of so called Content Objects. Each Content Object can contain other Content Objects thus forming the recursive structure of the CMS. Each Content Object has one or multiple Content Object value(s). A Content Object Value is always bound to a specific locale. A locale is a combination of a language identifier and a region identifier. For example the locale en_US represents the language English for the US region. So, you can define values for different languages but as well for different regions which use the same language (see how this is used for the resolution of CMS content at run-time).

In Axon.ivy, each project has its own CMS. Content Objects are looked up by means of the Content Object URI mentioned above. If the lookup for a Content Object fails in the current project, then Axon.ivy will recursively lookup the URI in the CMS's of the required projects (breadth-first).

There are various types of content that can be stored in a CMS. Every Content Object does have a specific content type. Content Object Values inherit that type from their Content Object. The types are used to access the content in the correct way (e.g. to set the MIME type in HTTP requests) but as well to provide specific editors for the manipulation of the values.

Symbol	Type Name	Purpose	Edited with ...
	Folder	For structural purposes only, folders are container for other Content Objects.
	String	Short texts (single line), e.g. labels, names, descriptions, tool tips.	String Editor
	Text	Longer and/or formatted texts with multiple lines or even multiple paragraphs.	Text Editor
	Image	An image of arbitrary size. GIF Image, PNG Image, JPG Image types are supported.	Image Editor
	Source	Scripts of any form, e.g. javascript or jsp snippets.	Source Editor
	Page	Container object for HTML Page content. This is used in Web Page process elements.	HTML Page Editor
	CSS	Cascaded Style Sheet definitions	CSS Editor
	Layout	JSP HTML layout with included Content Objects. Typically created and used as part of a Page object.	Layout Editor
	Panel	Panels are the content parts for Page objects and are defined with Layout objects.	HTML Panel Editor
	JSP	Alternative to the Page object. Uses pure JSP for layouting.	JSP Editor
	Table	Allows to place content and Content Objects into a HTML table.	HTML Table Editor.
	Link	Generates a HTML link or form.	HTML Link Editor
	Result Table	Generates dynamic tabular HTML content from process data.	Result Table Editor
	Smart Table	Generates dynamic tabular HTML content from process data gathered from a data base, Supports paging.	Smart Table Editor
	Document	Any document (the most common document formats are supported such as PDF, DOC, XLS, MP3 ...)	Document Editor

Table 5.1. Content Object Types

CMS content can be used in the most locations where Axon.ivy displays text for example in User Dialogs, Web Pages or in processes. Use Content Objects to set the text of your labels, the images for your icons or the content of your HTML pages. There are two ways how to use content from the CMS:

Depending on the context Axon.ivy will return the content (link) in the correct form. For example, if you use an image Content Object in the Icon-Uri field of the widget configuration of a RLabel then Axon.ivy will display the image in the Rich Dialog. On the other hand if you use a document Content Object in the HTML panel editor, then it will be rendered as a link to the document in the HTML page.

Some content objects can be accessed directly from the browser with the URL pattern http://<servername>:<port>/ivy/cm/<application name>/<process model>/<path in CMS>. Assumed you have created a page in a CMS with the path /StaticContent/MyPage in a project named Test. Type the URL http://localhost:8081/ivy/cm/designer/Test/StaticContent/MyPage in your browser and the page will be rendered in there.

If content from the CMS is requested, it is addressed using the URI of the Content Object. But the real content (the text, the string, ...) is stored in a Content Object Value. How does Axon.ivy resolve the Content Object Value whose content is returned?

First, Axon.ivy tries to find the requested Content Object. It looks up in the current project first. If not found Axon.ivy will recursively look up in the CMS's of the required projects in a breadth-first manner (i.e. first it searches in all of the directly required projects, then in all of the required projects of the directly required projects and so on).

Second, as soon as Axon.ivy has found the Content Object, it evaluates which is the correct value to return. First, the lookup locale is defined. The algorithm to resolve the lookup locale is like this:

When Axon.ivy knows the lookup locale, then it tries to resolve the correct value. The algorithm for that is like this:

This view is the central UI element for the interaction with the CMS. It shows the CMS of all open projects in the workspace including all Content Objects and their values and offers multiple ways to perform actions on the CMS and the Content Objects.

Features

Display Content Object values

The central element in the view is a table tree that shows the structure of the CMS in the first column (the tree column). Furthermore the table can display one column for every language that is available for at least one project in the workspace. In those columns the value of the corresponding Content Object in the corresponding language is shown.

If you want to focus on the CMS structure then you can hide all the language columns so that only the first column is displayed. Just click on in the toolbar of the view to toggle between hiding and displaying the columns for the languages.

If you want to see the column for the values then you can configure for which languages the table shows a column. By default the view shows a column for the default language(s) of the project(s) in the workspace. Click on the menu () in the view to configure which columns are visible.

Note

The * in the title of a language column indicates that the language is the default CMS language for a project. Because you can have multiple projects in your workspace, it may be that you have multiple default languages and therefore multiple columns with a *. You can define the default languages for every project in its CMS preferences.

Inline Editing

For some types you can edit the Content Object values directly. For (some) text based types you can edit the text directly in the view, just click in the cell of the value and type.

For file based types you can import a file for each value directly in the cell. Just move your mouse over the cell of the value for which you want to import a file and click on the icon on the right. Values for which already content is available show a ... in their cell.

Filter the view

By using the CMS search you can filter the contents in the view according to your search string. Enter a filter expression and the CMS table tree will be reduced to only show the Content Object matching that expression. If there is no match, all Content Objects are shown.

Use an asterisk (*) as wildcard to search for any sequence of characters: E.g. the filter expression ivy*data would match ivyMyFancyData, ivydata, ivy something else data, etc.

Use a question mark (?) as wildcard to search for any single character: E.g. the filter expression image?data would match imageZdata, image0data, etc.

Tip

An asterisk (*) is always added implicitly at the end of your filter expression. So if you enter the string ivy, the filter expression that is really used is ivy*.

Add new Content Objects

You have basically two options to create new Content Objects, either you do it kind of generic or you can create them from file(s). As a convenience method you can create folders in a more direct and simpler way than other Content Objects as a folder does not have value(s). You can execute all three actions only in the popup menu of the view.

Use Add... in the popup menu to create new Content Objects and enter the type, the name, the value and whether you want to create values for all languages in the CMS.

The default for the type is String. The Document types are not available for manual choosing, use Add from file(s)... if you want to create such Content Objects.

In the name column you can use either a simple name or as well an absolute or relative path. If you do so, then Axon.ivy will check the corresponding path and create folder Content Objects where necessary.

For text based types you can edit the text directly in the value column. For file based types you can import a file, just move your mouse over the cell and click on the icon.

In the last column you can decide whether you want to create automatically one value for every CMS language or not. The default comes from the corresponding project property and overwrites that if changed.

If you choose to create the Content Objects from file (the Add from file(s)... command in the popup menu, then first a file chooser dialog is opened. In there select the files that you want to have in the CMS and click OK. Then Axon.ivy will create a Content Object for each file. The type is detected automatically (if it cannot be detected then that file will be omitted), the name is set to the file name and the default value is the file content. After the file chooser, Axon.ivy opens the normal Add Content Object dialog so that you can revise the decisions before the Content Objects gets actually created.

You can add Content Objects too from the web. Just copy the URL and click on the Add from URL... command in the popup menu. In the next dialog, just enter the URl and continue to import the Content Object from the web.

Other actions

In the view you can invoke several actions from the popup menu:

Rename

Opens a dialog where you can enter a new name for the currently selected Content Object.

Warning

When you rename a Content Object, the URI of all it's children will change (e.g. from /Labels/Common/Ok to /Labels/Buttons/Ok). Any references to those objects (including the renamed object) will not be updated automatically and might be broken!

Copy

Copies the currently selected Content Object (including all of it's children) to the clipboard. The copied Content Objects can be inserted somewhere else in the content tree with Paste.

Paste

Inserts any Content Object(s) that was copied before to the clipboard with Copy. The copied Content Objects are inserted as children of the selected Content Object .

Note

Not all Content Object types are allowed as children of other Content Object types. In such a case the Paste menu entry might be disabled.

Delete

Deletes the currently selected Content Object (including all of its children) from the CMS after requesting a confirmation from the user.

Warning

Deleting a Content Object will break all references to the object or its children!

Copy URI

Copies the URI of the currently selected Content Object to the system clipboard. Use CTRL + v to insert the URI into any text fields or editors.

Copy URI as IvyScript macro

Copies the URI of the currently selected Content Object as an IvyScript macro tag to the system clipboard. Use CTRL + v to insert the macro into a IvyScript Macro text editor.

Refresh Content

Refreshes (i.e. reloads) the content below the currently selected Content Object.

Drag and Drop

Content Objects (e.g. strings and images) from the CMS view can be dragged and dropped into

• the Rich Dialog editor (aka Visual editor)

• Widget Configuration fields

• the Html Dialog editor

to be used for label texts or for images.

The Content Editor is used to manipulate Content Objects in the Content Management System (CMS) of a project.

Content Object header

The editor has a header with a title and buttons for the most important actions.

In addition to the Content Object type and the path in the title you can find more information about the Content Object in the tool tip of the title. There you see the date, time and the author of the last change. And the following actions are available on the right end of the header:

Open page preview

Opens a preview of the Content Object in a web browser. This action is only available within a Page Content Object. If the Web Browser View is active it is used otherwise an external browser is opened to show the preview.

Add new Content Object value

Adds a new value to this Content Object. A dialog is opened for the user to select the language of the new value.

Rename Content Object

Opens a dialog where a new name for the this Content Object can be entered.

Warning

When you rename a Content Object, the URI of all it's children will change (e.g. from /Labels/Common/Ok to /Labels/Buttons/Ok). Any references to those objects (including the renamed object) will not be updated automatically and might be broken!

Copy Content Object

Copies this Content Object (including all of it's children) to the clipboard. The copied objects can be inserted somewhere else in the content tree with Paste.

Delete Content Object

Deletes this Content Object from the CMS. A Content Object is deleted with all of its values and child Content Objects.

Warning

Deleting a Content Object will break all existing references to it or to any of its children!

The Content Object Values area of the CMS editor contains specific editors for values of the different Content Object Types. This section briefly introduces them.

String Editor

The string editor is simply a single-line text field; it does not accept line breaks. Content cannot be imported.

Text Editor

The text editor has two views: an Edit and a Source view. The Edit view is a WYSIWYG HTML text editor in which you can edit and format your text and the text appears like it will be at run-time. The Source view is a text only editor where you can edit the text directly in HTML. Both views are synchronized, if you edit text in the Edit view then the text in the Source View gets updated and vice versa. Content cannot be imported.

Image Editor

The image editor shows images of the types GIF, PNG and JPG. Content import is supported. For images that are larger than the available space just the top left corner is displayed.

Tip

Change the file browser's view to show thumbnails of your images. This helps you to select the correct image. Depending on your operating system (version), the way to turn this on varies.

Document Editor

Preview

The document editor is used for almost all document content objects (basically for binary data). The editor can show a preview of textual content and will also show information about the size and encoding of the displayed content. For binary document types (e.g. PDF, audio or video) a preview is not available.

Import from File

Importing of content is supported. The import will try to infer the encoding of the imported document. If this is not possible, the user is asked to set the encoding.

Source Editor

The source editor is used to edit any kind of source text like JSP, HTML or JavaScript.

By clicking on the button, the attribute browser opens where the user can insert process data. An optional condition may be specified as well as a suitable format for the type of the selected attribute (if available).

Click Export... from the Axon.ivy project tree view or from the File menu. Then choose CMS from the category Axon.ivy.

Choose which CMS you want to export and where in the file system it should be stored. After you started the export, you can open the exported file directly from the confirmation dialog.

The exported file contains one column for the name, one for the URI and one for each language of the CMS. Only String and Text types are exported.

Click Import... from the Axon.ivy project tree view or from the File menu. Then choose CMS from the category Axon.ivy.

Choose in which project you want to import and where in the file system the import file comes from. After the import you will see a dialog that shows you the stats of the import like how many Content Objects were updated.

In the import file, the URI column is used as ID. If a Content Object with the same URI is found, then the content in the language columns in the Excel file is put in the corresponding value of the Content Object.