Developing ATG Applications

Part I
Chapter 4 • Data Anywhere Architecture

Using ATG Repositories, Scenario PersonalizationSM

and the Dynamo Application Framework
Objectives
• After completing this chapter, you will be able to
— Understand the Data Anywhere Architecture

— Use an ItemLookupDroplet to retrieve an

item from a Repository

— Use the Repository Query Language to query

a Repository
— Use the ACC to browse and query a

Repository

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 ATG Data Anywhere Architecture
Overview

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The Problem

Dynamusic.com

LDAP Employee
Directory newsfeed (XML)

Images
Customer Data
Song Data

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The Solution

Dynamusic.com

ATG Data Anywhere Architecture

Dynamo Repositories

LDAP Employee
Directory Customer Data Song Data Images newsfeed (XML)

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The ATG Data Anywhere Architecture (1)
• The ATG Data Anywhere Architecture provides
Repositories, which connect to various data
sources
— SQL relational database

— LDAP directory

— File system (XML or HTML files)

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The ATG Data Anywhere Architecture (2)
• Includes
— Servlet Beans for displaying data in a page

— Form handlers for modifying data in a page

— Java API for querying, loading and storing

data

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Why the Data Anywhere Architecture?

ATG DAA JDO EJB JDBC

Data Source
Independence √ √ *
Schema Independence √ √ √
Object Mapping √ √ √
No Java Coding √
Application Server
Portability √ √ √ √
Transaction Control √ √
Searching √
Intelligent Caching √ * *
Access Control √ √
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Where are Repositories Used?
• The ATG product suite uses repositories
extensively
• Some out of the box repositories include:
— Profile Repository (SQL or LDAP)

— Content Repositories (SQL or files)

— Commerce Repositories (Product Catalogs,

etc.)

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 Repository Architecture

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Dynamusic.com Repositories

/atg
/dynamusic/ /userprofiling/ /dynamusic/
SongsRepository ProfileAdapterRe EventsRepository
pository

Albums
Venues
Users
Artists
Concerts
Songs Playlists

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 Repository Items (1)
RepositoryItem
id
title
album

artist
songList
...
Songs
Albums
Reposi
RepositoryItem tory Artists

id
Songs
artist
name
description
photoURL
...
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Repository Items (2)
• Each RepositoryItem has
— a repositoryId property

— zero or more other properties as specified by

the Item Descriptor

Item Descriptor repositoryId

RepositoryItem
implementation type: album id
class properties:
title
=
id (String)
repositoryId

itemDescriptor
+ title (String)
artist (artist)
album artist

songList (song[]) songList

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 Item Relationships
RepositoryItem
RepositoryItem
id=200023 id=610153
title=Abbey Road title=Here Comes
songs song the Sun
album

artist downloadURL

coverURL artist

RepositoryItem
id=200194 MP3
name=The Beatles
artist
descr="The 'Fab Four'
started in Liverpool as…"

photoURL

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Demo: Repositories and the ACC

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 Using Repositories:
Repository Servlet Beans

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Using Repositories with Dynamic Pages
• The most common use of repositories is to
display and manipulate data in dynamic pages

Web Page Repository Data

• ATG includes tools for using repositories in

pages
— Dynamo Servlet Beans

— Form Handlers

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Repository Servlet Beans
• When you know the item ID and want to display
the item
— ItemLookupDroplet

• When you want to query for items

— RQLQueryForEach

— RQLQueryRange

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Using an Item Lookup Droplet (1)
• Create and configure new component based on
the ItemLookupDroplet class

ConcertLookup
Droplet Events
repository Repository venue

itemDescriptor = "concert" concert

id
name
concert
description
venue
artists
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Using an Item Lookup Droplet (2)
• Call from a page, passing in the id parameter
<dsp:droplet name="/dynamusic/ConcertLookupDroplet">
<dsp:param name="id" param="itemId"/>
<dsp:oparam name="output">
Name: <dsp:valueof param="element.name"/> <br>
Venue: <dsp:valueof param="element.venue.name"/>
<br>
Date: <dsp:valueof param="element.date" date="MMM
dd,yyyy"/> <br>
</dsp:oparam>
<dsp:oparam name="empty">
No such concert found.
</dsp:oparam>
</dsp:droplet>
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 Querying a Repository

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Repository Query Servlet Beans
• For cases when the id of the item(s) is unknown, the
Data Anywhere Architecture includes query Servlet
Beans
— RQLQueryForEach – displays each item found by a
query
— RQLQueryRange – displays a subset of result items
• Queries can:
— Match patterns in text
— Query through collections
— Query through complex values
— Specify the order to present the results
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Using RQL Servlet Beans
• Input parameters
— repository – the repository to query

— itemDescriptor – which item type to query for

— queryRQL – a statement written in RQL specifying

the query criteria

• Output parameter
— element – the current item from the result set

• Oparam
— output – rendered once the query has been executed

— empty – rendered if no items were found that

matched

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Repository Query Language (RQL)
• Textual query syntax, similar to SQL
— RQL describes conditions to match items of a

given item type

— Why RQL?

• Not specific to databases, can be used with

any supported data source

• Understands relationships between

repository items
• Higher level than SQL

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RQL Statements
• RQL statements are built using the RQL syntax
around a specified item type descriptor
• Example:
— item type: song
— repository: /dynamusic/SongsRepository
— RQL statement: genre = "jazz"
means "find all song items whose genre property is
jazz"

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RQL Query Conditions
• Return all items: ALL
• Comparison: =, !=, <, <=, >, >=
— Example: age > 18

• Text comparison: starts with, ends with,

contains
— Example: firstName STARTS WITH "H"
• Is Null Queries
— Example: phoneNumber IS NULL

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RQL Queries with Item References
• If a property refers to another repository item,
you can drill down:
— Single value properties
address.zip starts with "02"
— Multi value properties
favoriteArtists INCLUDES ITEM (name
STARTS WITH "B")

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RQL Collection Queries
• INCLUDES ANY
For example:
prefGenres INCLUDES ANY { "jazz", "blues" }
is equivalent to:
(prefGenres INCLUDES "jazz") OR
(prefGenres INCLUDES "blues")

• INCLUDES ALL
For example:
prefGenres INCLUDES ALL { "jazz", "blues" }
is equivalent to:
(prefGenres INCLUDES "jazz") AND
(prefGenres INCLUDES "blues")

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Parameterized RQL Queries
• Queries have access to page parameters
— genre = :paramname
• The parameters you want to use must be in
scope when the Servlet Bean is rendered
• Parameters may be
— passed in from an enclosing page

— defined on this page explicitly

— provided by the user by filling out a form

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Example: RQLQueryRange (1)

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 Example: RQLQueryRange (2)
1 <dsp:droplet name="/atg/dynamo/droplet/ForEach">
<dsp:param bean="Profile.prefGenres" name="array"/>
<dsp:oparam name="output">
2 <dsp:setvalue param="prefgenre" paramvalue="element"/>
<h3><dsp:valueof param="prefgenre"/> songs: </h3><ul>
<dsp:droplet name="/atg/dynamo/droplet/RQLQueryRange">
3 <dsp:param name="itemDescriptor" value="song"/>
<dsp:param name="repository"
value="/dynamusic/SongsRepository"/>
<dsp:param name="howMany" value="4"/>
4 <dsp:param name="queryRQL" value="genre = :prefgenre"/>
<dsp:oparam name="output">
<li><dsp:valueof param="element.title"/> (by
<dsp:valueof param="element.artist.name"/>)
</dsp:oparam>
</dsp:droplet>
</ul>
</dsp:oparam> genresongs.jsp
</dsp:droplet>

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RQL Query and Item Lookup Together(1)

… <dsp:oparam name="output">
<li><dsp:a href="song.jsp">
<dsp:param name="itemId" param="element.id"/>
genresongs.jsp <dsp:valueof param="element.title"/> (by
<dsp:valueof param="element.artist.name"/>)
</dsp:a>
</dsp:oparam> …
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RQL Query and Item Lookup Together(2)
song.jsp

<dsp:droplet name="/dynamusic/SongLookupDroplet">
<dsp:param name="id" param="itemId"/>
<dsp:oparam name="output">
…
Song: <dsp:valueof param="element.title"/>
…
</dsp:oparam>
</dsp:droplet>

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 Dynamic Beans:
The Magic Behind

<dsp:valueof
param="element.property">

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Repository Item Properties
• How can objects of the same class have different
properties?
• The RepositoryItem class uses
— a Map to store values

— get/setPropertyValue(String

propertyName) to get and set values

RepositoryItem title Abbey Road

coverURL /images/abbeyroad.jpg
values
date 9/26/1969
album getPropertyValue() artist The Beatles
setPropertyValue()

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 Property Mapping (1)
• ATG normally retrieves/modifies properties by
calling the get/set methods of beans
Page.jsp
<dsp:droplet name="ForEach">
...
mycompany.someClass
<dsp:valueof param="element.someProp"/>
... String getSomeProp()

• This would not work for a RepositoryItem

Page.jsp
<dsp:droplet name="SongLookupDroplet">
atg.repository.RepositoryItem
...
<dsp:valueof param="element.title"/> String getTitle()

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Property Mapping (2)
• Each Dynamic Bean class (such as
RepositoryItem) has an associated Dynamic
Property Mapper object that tells ATG how to get
and set properties
Dynamic
Property
Mapper

Page.jsp RepositoryItem
<dsp:droplet name="Repository">
…
<dsp:valueof param="element.title"/> getPropertyValue("title")
…
</dsp:droplet>

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Dynamic Beans and JSTL
• JSTL "dot" notation for accessing JavaBean
properties doesn't work for Dynamic Beans

<c:out value=
"${element.title}"/>

• Use the DSP tomap tag to create a Map object

from a Dynamic Bean

<dspel:tomap var="elementMap" param="${element}"/>

<c:out value="${elementMap.title}"/>

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Summary
In this chapter, you learned that
• The Data Anywhere Architecture frees the

developer from having to know about the details

of a data source; all items are returned as
RepositoryItem objects
• Item Lookup Servlet Beans retrieve items from

the repository by ID
• RQL Servlet Beans query the repository

• The Dynamic Beans facility allows Repository

Items to have variable properties

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For More Information
• Repository Guide
• Page Developer's Guide
— "Dynamo Servlet Beans" appendix

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Exercises
• Use the ACC the browse the Songs Repository
• Create "drill-down pages" to list artists, albums
and songs from the Songs Repository

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