Using the BEA Content Management System

Question

Hello,
We are currently attempting to setup CMS under Weblogic Portal 8.1 (sp4) for use with an application we are building. We have built a new "type" with its own custom properties.
In a JSP, we need to provide drop downs that a user can select from, to query the CMS for documents. The values in the drop downs mirror the values in the property fields of the documents kept in the CMS. There should be a distinct list for the drop downs, no duplicate entries.
Has anyone built drop downs populated from the property values of the documents in CMS?
Was this built using content selectors? Or was this built using queries to the database supporting the CMS?
An additional note, the amount of content will increase by at least 1gig a year.
Thank you,
Robert

Answer 1

The ability to retrieve a set of distinct values (across all nodes) for a given Property Definition is not a built-in capability.
However, you can add this capability, like this:
- find an external storage location for storing this data (basically a 1:m relationship from String propDef to propDefValue) -- see below for some ideas.
First, process existing nodes:
- for each property definition on the specified type:
- retrieve all nodes of that type (by iterating, or by query)
- for each node of that type:
- retrieve the property value
- check if the property value is in the external storage location; if not, add it
- end for
- end for
Once this is complete, you only need to process new nodes:
- when node of the specified type is added, for each property definition:
- check if the property value is in the external storage location; if not, add it.
You can construct your drop-down list from the external storage data.
Several ideas for the external storage location:
- unrestricted property choices on the associated PropertyDefinition on the ObjectClass.
- database table
- content nodes of a new type.