CRX - is there a client library included with LiveCycle that allows document storage and retrieval?

[eddie]

I've found some documentation on storing and retrieving documents from CRX. This documentation talks about using the JCR API or HTTP access using Sling. Is there a client library (Java API) included with LiveCycle ES 4 (LiveCycle 11) that also allows operations on the CRX repository? 

In the LiveCycle ES4 Workbench, when I click on LiveCycle Runtime View --> Services tab, under the Foundation Category I see Content Repository Connector. Clicking on this top level item, the description says 'Crx Content Repository Service'. Under this item, operations such as createFolder, retrieveContent, and storeContent are available. Then, in the Adobe LiveCycle install directory under sdk/client-libs/common, I see an adobe-crc-client.jar. This jar contains a CRCServiceClient class which appears to have methods that correspond with the operations available from the Workbench (retrieveContent, storeContent, etc.). However, I am unable to find any documentation that details how to use this class from a custom client Java application.

Is anyone familiar with any of this? Is this a Java API that I could/should be using (just like we use FormsServiceClient and OutputServiceClient to call the FormsService and OutputService), or is the recommended way to use the JCR API (by including some other jars) or making HTTP GET/POST requests via the Sling interface?

Thanks,

Eddie

 

[Darren]

Hi Eddie - I would assume the Adobe guys just used the Jackrabbit JCR APIs to connect to CRX for their DSC. If you pull apart the adobe-crc-dsc.jar file you will see a load of Jackrabbit JCR libraries in there plus the adobe-crc-client.jar for connections via CRCServiceClient class as you found. I don't think there is any Livecycle-specific API for performing CRX operations.

Cheers Darren

[Rob McDougall]

 

Darren is correct, there is no LiveCycle specific API's.  I haven't dug into the Content Repository Client jar file to see what libraries it uses however I have monitored its communications to CRX and it is just performing HTTP POSTs and GETs.

So far, our requirements to interface with CRX have just been to access it to/from orchestrations (not Java directly).  We've done that in three different ways:

1) Using the Content Repository Connector service

2) Using a custom component that performs standard HTTP POST/GET operations to POST or GET documents from CRX directly

3) Using a custom component that performs standard HTTP POST/GET operations to POST or GET  to/from a Sling servlet with the Sling servlet performing the JCR work.

I'm not sure what client-side java libraries there may be for talking to CRX/Jackrabbit however I would expect that some exist.

Regards,

Rob

Rob McDougall | Senior Technical Architect | 4Point | www.4Point.com