Before you start
ECM solutions increasingly need to capture and manage all forms of unstructured content, such as images, forms, fax, office documents, e-mail, video, and audio. To be most effective, this content needs to be integrated across diverse business processes and applications such that it can be delivered on demand to users. This integration typically involves using the API of the ECM solution to allow for in-flight searching of relevant content. For example, you might want to search for all documents relating to the customer number the user is working with.
It is precisely this level of integration that this tutorial aims to cover. This is an introduction to programming for IBM ECM. This tutorial covers the Java API of the IBM Content Manager product, as well as the IBM FileNet P8 Content Manager product. In addition, the federated Java API of IBM Information Integrator Content Edition is covered — which is capable of accessing either repository (or both).
There are, of course, APIs other than Java, for example Web Services — which are not in the scope of this tutorial.
This tutorial assumes that you are an experienced IBM Content Manager user or IBM FileNet P8 Content Manager user with Java application development experience using Rational Application Developer.
This tutorial is based on three software environments:
- IBM Content Manager API
- IBM Content Manager
- IBM Rational Application Developer
- IBM FileNet P8 Content Manager API
- IBM FileNet P8 Content Manager
- IBM Rational Application Developer
- IBM Information Integrator Content Edition API
- IBM Content Manager
- IBM Information Integrator Content Edition
- IBM Rational Application Developer
The software versions used are as follows:
- IBM Content Manager
- Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server SP4
- IBM WebSphere® Application Server 5.1.1.2
- IBM Content Manager 8.3
- IBM FileNet P8 Content Manager
- Microsoft Windows 2003 Enterprise Server SP1
- IBM WebSphere Application Server 6.2.0.13
- IBM FileNet P8 4.0 Content Engine
- IBM FileNet P8 4.0 Application Engine
- IBM Information Integrator Content Edition
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Server SP4
- IBM WebSphere Application Server 5.1.1.2
- IBM Content Manager 8.3
- IBM Information Integrator Content Edition 8.3
- IBM Rational Application Developer
- IBM Rational Application Developer 7.0.0
The typical business context for a user who needs access to documents in the ECM repository is to show a list of all documents that relate to the entity they are currently working with, for example: customer, supplier, product, or project. From the list of matching documents, they then select one or more and choose to view them.
The application you will write satisfies these basic requirements by performing the following, using each API in turn:
- Log-on to the repository
- Perform a parametric search
- Retrieve the results set
- View the document metadata
- View the documents
Important: The sample code in this exercise assumes that you will be retrieving “simple" documents, that is, single part document objects with no annotations. The ECM products do allow for a more complex content model, which is beyond the scope of this tutorial.





