com.webmethods.portal.bizPolicy.biz.alias

Interface IAliasPolicy

All Superinterfaces:

IBizPolicy, IComponent, IInitializable, ISystemHandler

All Known Subinterfaces:

ITopicSpacePolicy

public interface IAliasPolicy
extends IBizPolicy

Policy for querying, creating and removing aliases.

Aliases are a persistent pseudonym for various things, including portal resources, uri's or arbitrary strings. Once you have created an alias using createAlias(com.webmethods.portal.bizPolicy.IContext, java.lang.Object, java.lang.Object, java.lang.String, boolean), then you can lookup the target of that alias using lookupAlias(com.webmethods.portal.bizPolicy.IContext, java.lang.Object).

This becomes especially useful for creating friendly names for portal resources. For example, if you want to browse to the help topic, instead of typing in /server/nis/meta/default/topic/000000043 (assuming you had that memorized), you could instead type: /server/nis/topic.help and you would get automatically redirected to the help topic.

Alias resolution like the example above works, because calls to PortalSystem.acquireURI(java.lang.String) automatically ties into the the IAliasMechanics which implements the IURIResolver. Therefore, any call to find the IURI for 'topic.help' results in the appropriate IThingID for the help topic. This is done transparently to the client of the IAliasPolicy, and is a useful by product of using this api.

Finally, aliases are persistent and clustered. This means that once you set an alias, by calling createAlias(com.webmethods.portal.bizPolicy.IContext, java.lang.Object, java.lang.Object, java.lang.String, boolean), the alias will be stored in the database, and (relatively) immediately available throughout the cluster. As a result, they are optimized for lookups, not creation calls.

Note: When setting portal resource uri's as keys, you should use ITopicSpacePolicy instead.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
void	createAlias(IContext context, Object source, Object target, String params, boolean isSystem) This will create a new alias.
IAliasValue	lookupAlias(IContext context, Object key) Retrieve the appropriate AliasValue based on a simple key.
void	removeAlias(IContext context, Object key) Removes an alias previously created.

Methods inherited from interface com.webmethods.portal.system.IComponent

getComponentData, getComponentName, getComponentProvider, getURI, isInitialized, setComponentData, setComponentProvider

Methods inherited from interface com.webmethods.portal.system.init.IInitializable

init, shutdown

Method Detail

createAlias

void createAlias(IContext context,
                 Object source,
                 Object target,
                 String params,
                 boolean isSystem)
          throws BizException

This will create a new alias. The source can be thought of as the 'key', and it is what will be passed in to subsequent calls to lookupAlias(com.webmethods.portal.bizPolicy.IContext, java.lang.Object) to retrieve the AliasValue which will represent the target.

Paramaters are rarely used. They are important when in the context of the web application, you want to redirect to a resource and append some extra paramaters to the url. They should be in the form of name=value&name2=value2

IsSystem specifies extra restrictions placed upon this alias. If this is set to true, then this alias can not be removed through the alias administration portlet, and will require an administrator invoking apis directly to remove this alias.

Parameters:

context - Command context (user state information).

source - either a String, IURI or IThingID

target - either a String, IURI or IThingID

params - optional paramater list

isSystem - whether this is a protected system alias

Throws:

BizException

See Also:

IAliasCache, AliasValue

lookupAlias

IAliasValue lookupAlias(IContext context,
                        Object key)
                 throws BizException

Retrieve the appropriate AliasValue based on a simple key. The key is 'object' passed in from a previous call to createAlias(com.webmethods.portal.bizPolicy.IContext, java.lang.Object, java.lang.Object, java.lang.String, boolean). If an alias is found, you can get the 'target' by calling AliasValue#getValue. Other information is also available on the AliasValue.

Parameters:

context - Command context (user state information).

key - an arbitary key that may be a IURI or a String

Returns:

the AliasValue if found, NULL otherwise

Throws:

BizException

removeAlias

void removeAlias(IContext context,
                 Object key)
          throws BizException

Removes an alias previously created. The key is 'object' passed in from a previous call to createAlias(com.webmethods.portal.bizPolicy.IContext, java.lang.Object, java.lang.Object, java.lang.String, boolean). Note, if this alias was created as a 'system' alias, then you will not have access rights to remove it, unless you first disable the ITraits on the IContext.

Parameters:

context - Command context (user state information).

key - an arbitary key that may be a IURI or a String

Throws:

BizException