Alfresco Bulk Export Tool

A bulk filesystem export tool for the open source Alfresco CMS.

This module has as main objective provides a simple way to export Alfresco storaged content (with properties) to a file system. To start this system is used a simple HTTP/GET call to a webscript that just can be initialized by system administrator.

The format of filesystem choosed is described by Alfresco Bulk filesystem import, that can be found in Bulk Import Project Page.

A smal detail that need to be mencioned is the fact that file exportion will be done in server machine (even called by remote machine), else, you also can map a remote directory in the server end export content to there.

Please don't hesitate to contact the project owner if you'd like to contribute!

Prerequisites

Please make sure you are running a version of Alfresco that the tool has been developed for. As of the time of writing, the tool has been tested on alfresco 5.0, it should work on Alfresco v4.0+. The tool uses Java 1.7 features so will not work on versions of alfresco that do not support at least java 1.7.

Installation Steps

The following steps describe how to download and install the Alfresco Bulk Filesystem Import Tool:

Download the latest AMP file containing the tool from Release
Shutdown your Alfresco instance
Make a backup of the original alfresco.war file. On Tomcat, this is located in ${ALFRESCO_HOME}/tomcat/webapps
Use the Alfresco Module Management Tool to install the AMP file obtained in step 1
Restart Alfresco, watching the log carefully for errors

Usage

Alfresco bulk export can be used using the the webscript UI or a webscript without a UI

Method 1 - UI webscript

The following URL can be used to access the UI webscript http://{host}:{port}/alfresco/service/extensions/bulkexport/export

where:

{host}: is the host of your instalation.
{port}: is the port used by Alfresco.

The UI should look as follows

Folder NodeRef: The noderef of the folder you would like to export. This field or the 'From Date' field is required
Output folder: The full folder path where the nodes will be exported
From Date: The nodes modifed after the given value will be exported. This field or the 'Folder Noderef' need to be provided. The date format example is 2017-03-01T00:00:00
To Date: The nodes modifed before the given value will be exported. The date format example is 2017-03-01T00:00:00
Add aspects: This is used to inject custom aspects to the exported nodes. You can specify multiple aspects like my:migrationAspect,my:testAspect. This is helpful if you want to keep track of nodes that are migrated by adding a custom aspect.
Add properties: Custom properties can be injected. Example: my:sourceSystem=testserver,my:sourceSystemName=cm:name
Update existing model data: Existing types, aspects and properties can be updated. Example: my:prop1=mynew:prop2,my:type1=mynew:type1
Update model prefix: The model prefixes can be updated. Example: oldprefix=newprefix,acme=newacme
Ignore Exported: Checked means existing files will not be replaced
Export Versions: Checked means all versions of the node will be exported
Revision Head: Checked and export version is set to true means the head version will be numbered. Unchecked results in the default numbering scheme
Use Node Cache: Checked means the list of nodes are cached to the 'Output Folder'. This is list will be used for export.

Method 2 - Webscript

This module is started by a simple webscript call. To initiate the exportation you just use this URL in a browser:

http://{host}:{port}/alfresco/service/extensions/bulkexport/export?nodeRef={NodeRef}&base={base}&ignoreExported={ignoreExported?}&exportVersions={exportVersions}&revisionHead={revisionHead}&useNodeCache={useNodeCache}&cancel={cancel}

where:

{host}: is the host of your instalation.
{port}: is the port used by Alfresco.
{noderef}: is an Alfresco node reference that you want to export. Like: workspace://SpacesStore/c494aff5-bedf-40fa-8d0d-2aebcd583579
{base}: is a base path of your target folder (in the Alfresco Server). Like: /home/gsdenys/export or C:/export.
{ignoreExported?}: parameter optional. when it is true, the system will ignore all Alfresco nodes already exported. The default is false.
exportVersion if true exports all revisions of a node - parameter optional, The default is false.
revisionHead if true (and exportVersion=true) then files are exported with head (latest) revision numbered, if set to false then the default numbering scheme used by the Alfresco Bulk Import tool is used (head revision is not numbered) - parameter optional, only used if exportVersion set, The default is false.
useNodeCache if true then a list of nodes to export is cached to the export area for future repeated use. Sometimes useful for large exports of data due to the transaction cache being full - parameter optional, The default is false.
{cancel}: is the job id that needs to be stopped. The job id will be the noderef of the folder or the 'from date' value.

When the export is ended you will see in browser a message "Process finished Successfully". Once this message is printed, look-up your content in the Alfresco Server in the {base} directory.

The exporter will write progress to the Alfresco Log file as well as any issues it may have. Issues will also be reported on the web interface.

Logging

The plugin uses the standard alfresco log4j mechanism, the following modules are configured in the amp to the following values: log4j.logger.org.alfresco.extensions.bulkexport.controler.Engine=INFO log4j.logger.org.alfresco.extensions.bulkexport.dao.AlfrescoExportDaoImpl=ERROR log4j.logger.org.alfresco.extensions.bulkexport.model.FileFolder=ERROR log4j.logger.org.alfresco.extensions.bulkexport.Export=INFO