As described in Defining custom node types, the JCR 2.0 specification defines the Compact Node Definition (CND) format to easily and compactly specify node type definitions, but uses this format only within the specification. Instead, the only standard API for registering custom node types is via the standard programmatic API.
ModeShape fully supports this standard API, but it also defines a non-standard API for reading node type definitions from either CND files or the older Jackrabbit XML format. This non-standard API is described in this section.
Registering using the standard API
Registering using CND files
ModeShape defines in its public API a org.modeshape.jcr.nodetype.NodeTypeManager interface that extends the standard javax.jcr.nodetype.NodeTypeManager interface:
public interface NodeTypeManager extends javax.jcr.nodetype.NodeTypeManager {
/**
* Read the supplied stream containing node type definitions in the standard JCR 2.0 Compact Node Definition (CND) format or
* non-standard Jackrabbit XML format, and register the node types with this repository.
*
* @param stream the stream containing the node type definitions in CND format
* @param allowUpdate a boolean stating whether existing node type definitions should be modified/updated
* @throws IOException if there is a problem reading from the supplied stream
* @throws InvalidNodeTypeDefinitionException if the <code>NodeTypeDefinition</code> is invalid.
* @throws NodeTypeExistsException if <code>allowUpdate</code> is <code>false</code> and the <code>NodeTypeDefinition</code>
* specifies a node type name that is already registered.
* @throws UnsupportedRepositoryOperationException if this implementation does not support node type registration.
* @throws RepositoryException if another error occurs.
*/
void registerNodeTypes( InputStream stream,
boolean allowUpdate )
throws IOException, InvalidNodeTypeDefinitionException, NodeTypeExistsException, UnsupportedRepositoryOperationException,
RepositoryException;
/**
* Read the supplied file containing node type definitions in the standard JCR 2.0 Compact Node Definition (CND) format or
* non-standard Jackrabbit XML format, and register the node types with this repository.
*
* @param file the file containing the node types
* @param allowUpdate a boolean stating whether existing node type definitions should be modified/updated
* @throws IOException if there is a problem reading from the supplied stream
* @throws InvalidNodeTypeDefinitionException if the <code>NodeTypeDefinition</code> is invalid.
* @throws NodeTypeExistsException if <code>allowUpdate</code> is <code>false</code> and the <code>NodeTypeDefinition</code>
* specifies a node type name that is already registered.
* @throws UnsupportedRepositoryOperationException if this implementation does not support node type registration.
* @throws RepositoryException if another error occurs.
*/
void registerNodeTypes( File file,
boolean allowUpdate ) throws IOException, RepositoryException;
/**
* Read the supplied stream containing node type definitions in the standard JCR 2.0 Compact Node Definition (CND) format or
* non-standard Jackrabbit XML format, and register the node types with this repository.
*
* @param url the URL that can be resolved to the file containing the node type definitions in CND format
* @param allowUpdate a boolean stating whether existing node type definitions should be modified/updated
* @throws IOException if there is a problem reading from the supplied stream
* @throws InvalidNodeTypeDefinitionException if the <code>NodeTypeDefinition</code> is invalid.
* @throws NodeTypeExistsException if <code>allowUpdate</code> is <code>false</code> and the <code>NodeTypeDefinition</code>
* specifies a node type name that is already registered.
* @throws UnsupportedRepositoryOperationException if this implementation does not support node type registration.
* @throws RepositoryException if another error occurs.
*/
void registerNodeTypes( URL url,
boolean allowUpdate ) throws IOException, RepositoryException;
}
Simply cast the NodeTypeManager instance obtained from the Workspace.getNodeTypeManager() method:
Session session = ...
Workspace workspace = session.getWorkspace();
org.modeshape.jcr.api.nodetype.NodeTypeManager nodeTypeMgr =
(org.modeshape.jcr.api.nodetype.NodeTypeManager) workspace.getNodeTypeManager();
// Then register the node types in one or more CND files
// using a Java File object ...
File myCndFile = ...
nodeTypeManager.registerNodeTypes(myCndFile,true);
// or a URL that is resolvable to a CND file ...
URL myCndUrl = ...
nodeTypeManager.registerNodeTypes(myCndUrl,true);
// or an InputStream to the content of a CND file ...
InputStream myCndStream = ...
nodeTypeManager.registerNodeTypes(myCndStream,true);
Alternatively, you can cast the result of the Session.getWorkspace() method to org.modeshape.jcr.api.Workspace, which overrides the getNodeTypeManager() method to return org.modeshape.jcr.api.nodetype.NodeTypeManager:
Session session = ...
org.modeshape.jcr.api.Workspace workspace = (org.modeshape.jcr.api.Workspace) session.getWorkspace();
org.modeshape.jcr.api.nodetype.NodeTypeManager nodeTypeMgr = workspace.getNodeTypeManager();
// Then register the node types in one or more CND files ...
Registering CND files via configuration
In addition to using the ModeShape API as described above, it is possible to configure a repository to import, at startup, one or more CND files using the following format:
{
"name" : "Repository with node types",
"workspaces" : {
"predefined" : ["ws1", "ws2"],
"default" : "default",
"allowCreation" : true
},
"node-types" : ["cnd/cars.cnd", "cnd/aircraft.cnd"]
}
where the node-types attribute accepts an array of strings, representing paths to CND files, accessible at runtime.
If CND files are configured to be imported at repository startup, they will overwrite each time any pre-existing node types with the same name that have been registered previously.