Adding files with external link to Documents & Media - liferay

I'm trying to add an external link to a file and this external link should be stored in the same way as a file is stored inside of Liferay's Documents and Media portlet instead of uploading a file.
We have a collection of both PDFs and web forms (externally to liferay) and I want them all to be browsable and searchable from the same location within the Documents and Media portlet.
Does anyone know any kind of hack to accomplish this?

Forget the document library portlet for your special case. It's not possible to store link to external file nor asset.
To me the best choice is a custom Web content structure and template. Build a structure that can store external reference and description and any other info you need.
Associate a template to the structure to have a display form.
Use an asset publisher to view data in page. Using this way the content will be searchable and browseable.
#baxtheman

Related

Liferay and Documents and media display portlet

I need to have the same functionality provided by the "Documents and Media display" liferay portlet but I would like to use a database other than the liferay with additional custom fields. Is It possible? Is There another portlet to display storing documents in liferay?
Anything is possible with Liferay, but this goes against a lot of basic principles of content management. Most importantly:
You want to manage content that the Content Management System (CMS) does not own
You want to use data stored in a format your CMS does not understand or maintain
If you want to use Liferay as your CMS, your best bet is to migrate the documents into the Liferay Document Library and attach your additional content using Custom Fields or 1+ custom service entities that relate back to the document and you maintain.

Which to choose and when: Web content, Dynamic List Records or Specific Model?

I find that Liferay concepts are quite confusing.
When I add new items, I don't know what is the best to choose:
Use the web content concept with template and structure
Use the dynamic list records
Use a specific model (using service builder).
All of these are really similars and can achieve same goals.
Have you got any clue or advice on what concept to choose when you develop some new features in Liferay?
You should use the components in this way :
Web Content : Web contents provide convenient way to create, update, view, modify, create RSS feeds, customize the content of the web site. It is one of the main component of the Liferay CMS. You should use web content when,
You have static content and want to show to the site.
You have specific structure of the content (like content with an inline image and a document link), then please use web content with the structure and template
You want to use ready to use content portlets ( web content list, web content display, web content search) instead of creating new set of portlets for your own type.
After all this, Liferay provides customization of web contents by allowing user to add new content type, creating rss feeds, structures, templates, ready workflow, content type roles etc.
Dynamic List : Consider dynamic list as a database with display functionality. Here, you can create a custom type of data and provide display functionality. If you have any requirement like user can create his/her own type of list maintain them, then go for it.
Custom Portlet : If your requirement is very case/scenario specific that you cannot achieve using list or web content or any other Liferay portlets (blogs, wiki, knowledge based articles etc) then go for custom portlet, here please remember, that at every liferay upgrade, you need to review the portlet and update the code accordingly in case of any API change or something. For OOB portlets, Liferay takes care of it.
Hope this helps!
It deends on what you want to have and how much control you want to have over your code.
To make simplistic application use web content concept with template
and structure.(need not to know technologies)
-To make some complex applications use dynamic list records
To make extremely complex applications and have full control over the flow use liferay service builder.(need t be a expert java programmer)
Hope that helps :)

Changing the source of a Sharepoint List View

Effectively I am looking to change the viewed Document Library within an exsisting List View Web Part from 'Document Library #1' to Document Library #2'. I want to do so without having to re-create the entire web part (e.g. settings & views) as I would have to do this multiple times.
Sharepoint version is 2007 and Sharepoint Designer is not avaliable.
Context: I am currently building a Sharepoint area which will consist of multiple ASPX pages all based off an original layout. This layout includes a List View web part that directly views a Document Library.
Each ASPX page has a Document Library attributed to it (e.g. Page1.aspx and DocLib1), which I wish to display within this List View web part.
Page1.aspx was setup just fine (effectively the original). When setting up Page2.aspx as a direct copy of the first, I am unable to change the List View from DocLib1 to DocLib2 as there seems no option to do so.
The list view web part isn't easily customizable unless you can edit the xml for the web part and change some guids. If you want to be able to change the source list through the browser you will need to use a different web part - the content query web part is an out of box option, though obviously that is quite different from the standard list view.
You may also be able to do something with with list templates - if you can use a custom template instead of the standard document library template, you may be able to alter AllItems.aspx to do what you need.

How to create folders base on external datasource in SharePoint 2010?

My goal is to extend functionality of the current asset tracking system.
Basically I would like to pull list of Clients and related assets from external system into sharepoint 2010.
Then I would like to associate documents with each asset. My first intention is to create a list of folders where each folder would be named respectively.
Tell me, if I am going in the wrong direction.
You can open your document library in explorer view and easly copy your content from external sorce to document liabrary, as windows explorer.
You can reffer the below link for more details
http://msmvps.com/blogs/shane/archive/2006/01/12/80843.aspx

How to locate Sharepoint document library source page on the server?

I am working with a Sharepoint document library and I'm trying to locate the source of the document library page. I'm working on the Sharepoint server. I just can't find it, where should it be stored?
Thank you!
SharePoint does not store the pages directly in the filesystem. The mechanism is a little less straightforward.
To understand this mechanism, You have to understand the concepts of Ghosting/Unghosting, and the ASP.NET Virtual Path Provider. The SharePoint stores the pages in the Database as BLOBS, and serves them up using the ASP.NET Virtual path provider.
The ASP.NET Virtual Path Provider provides an abstraction between ASP.NET and FileSystem. Instead of getting a System.IO.FileStream object directly from the filesystem, the provider uses MapPathBasedVirtualPathProvider and the MapPathBasedVirtualFile classes to get the FileStream object.
This abstraction allows ASP.NET to serve up pages from anywhere, without having to store the pages in an actual file system. This concept is used to implement Ghosting/Unghosting which basically means having a single copy of the page, and serving them up as different pages.
SharePoint leverages this new feature in ASP.NET 2.0, along with the improved BLOB storage functionality in SQL Server 2005 to serve up pages.
Your question is not very clear...
Are you refering to the "source" code of the document library pages?
It depends if you have edited them with SharePoint Designer or not. If not they should be located under 12 hive (c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12). If any modification were done using SPD2007 the files will be stored in the content database.
...or are you refering to the "source" where the files are stored?
All the files saved in document libraries are stored in the content database as blobs in the AllUserData table.
You the pages appear as 'aspx' pages, they are not stored on the server anywhere as aspx pages. All pages are either stored in the DB as a BLOB, or 'put together' at runtime from information stored in the DB. SharePoint is an odd monster :)
If you are going to edit the look, there are a few options:
SharePoint Designer (I hate this app)
Make another 'web part page' that includes the document library inside of it while changing the content around it (easiest and best approach IMO)
make a specialized web-part (most
difficult)
SharePoint takes a whilet o get the full grasp of... it is strange.
When you create a document library template files from the "12 hive" are ghosted into the SharePoint content database (SQL). The only proper way to edit those pages at that point is to use Microsoft SharePoint Designer.
Open SharePoint Designer and open the SharePoint web site in question and you will see your document library listed in the file explorer. Under your document library you will see a Forms folder, that Forms folder is what contains the source files that are rendered to the browser.
Here is a screen shot:
If I understand what Sacha and Naspinski are saying, when I am creating a new Document library, the look of the page is retrieved from the 12 hive and stored (ghosted?) into the DB. The page is no more stored into the 12 hive, as for each document library I will have a somehow "customized page". Is that true?
There are two types of pages in SharePoint2010.Application page and site page.SharePoint store application page directly in File system.For site pages , if the page is in a ghosted state , the page in stored in the file system.If the page has been customized,the file is then stored in the content database.

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