How to use App Connect with IBM FileNet Content Manager

IBM FileNet Content Manager streamlines and automates business processes, accesses and manages all forms of content, and automates records management for compliance.

Connecting to IBM FileNet Content Manager

Restriction: Currently, only the IBM FileNet Content Manager hosted on the cloud is supported, and the IBM FileNet Content Manager setup on IBM Cloud Pak for Data is not supported.

Complete the connection fields that you see in the App Connect Designer Connect > Applications and APIs page (previously the Catalog page) or flow editor. If necessary, work with your IBM FileNet Content Manager administrator to obtain these values.

IBM FileNet Content Manager has the following connection fields.

FileNet GraphQL URL: The Content Services GraphQL server URL of your IBM FileNet Content Manager. This field is mandatory.
Note: App Connect uses the GraphQL API to communicate with IBM FileNet Content Manager. The core installation does not have the GraphQL setup; if you need to add the GraphQL setup to your IBM FileNet Content Manager, see Content Services GraphQL API in the FileNet P8 Platform documentation.
For details about deploying the Content Services GraphQL API, see Configuring the Content Services GraphQL API.
Username: The username for the Content Services GraphQL account. This field is mandatory.
Password: The password for the specified username. This field is mandatory.

To connect to a IBM FileNet Content Manager endpoint from the App Connect Designer Applications and APIs page for the first time, expand IBM FileNet Content Manager, then click Connect. For more information, see Managing accounts.

General considerations

Before you use App Connect Designer with IBM FileNet Content Manager, take note of the following considerations:

(General consideration) You can see lists of the trigger events and actions that are available on the Applications and APIs page of the App Connect Designer.
For some applications, the events and actions depend on the environment and whether the connector supports configurable events and dynamic discovery of actions. If the application supports configurable events, you see a Show more configurable events link under the events list. If the application supports dynamic discovery of actions, you see a Show more link under the actions list.
(General consideration) If you are using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that is displayed when you select an action for that application can vary for different accounts. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a curated set of static fields for an action. Other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you are connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two instances of an application, the first account might use settings that are ready for immediate use. However, the second account might be configured with extra custom fields.

Post connection considerations

Take note of the following considerations after you connect to IBM FileNet Content Manager.

Updating permissions

Permissions in IBM FileNet Content Manager control access to and modification of documents and folders within the system. Each document and folder in FileNet Content Manager has its own set of permissions, which determine the actions that specific users or groups can complete. These permissions are organized into arrays, providing detailed control over access and operations. Currently, in the App Connect UI, the system directly adjusts permissions through the UI instead of using the array-based permission structures.

The following are the types of permissions that are supported in FileNet Content Manager:

Access permission determines who can access and update a document or folder.
Note: Newly created documents or folders are automatically granted Access permissions to establish initial access rights for users.
Delegated access permission allows users to delegate their access permissions to others.
Role permission grants access permissions to static or dynamic roles.
If you modify the permission type for a document from Access Permission through the App Connect UI, and switch the permission type to Role permission or Delegated permissions, documents become effectively read only. If you need to assign multiple permissions to a document, use the FileNet Content Manager UI.

For detailed information on IBM FileNet Content Manager security and security policies, see Security and Security policies in the IBM FileNet P8 Platform documentation.

Inheritable depth field

The inheritable depth field specifies the level at which permissions are inherited in the folder hierarchy. The following values are supported.

OBJECT_ONLY refers to the object itself.
OBJECT_IMMEDIATE_CHILDREN refers to the object and its immediate children.
OBJECT_ALL_CHILDREN refers to the object and all its children.
ALL_CHILDREN_NOT_OBJECT refers to all children but not the object itself.
IMMEDIATE_CHILDREN_NOT_OBJECT refers to immediate children but not the object.

Access mask field

Every securable object in the Content Platform Engine has a security descriptor, which includes an Access Control List (ACL). The ACL is made up of Access Control Entries (ACEs), also known as permissions. Each permission identifies a security principal (user or group) by using a SID and specifies an access mask for that SID. The access mask defines the specific operations that the grantee (identified by the SID) is allowed to complete. Each bit in the mask corresponds to a specific operation, and if the bit is set, the security principal is authorized to complete that operation.

Events and actions

IBM FileNet Content Manager events

These events are for changes in this application that trigger a flow to start completing the actions in the flow.

Note: Events are not available for changes in this application. You can trigger a flow in other ways, such as at a scheduled interval or at specific dates and times.

IBM FileNet Content Manager actions

Your flow completes these actions on this application.

Object	Action	Description
Documents	Cancel document check out	Cancels a document check out
	Check in document	Checks in a document
	Check out document	Checks out a document
	Create document	Creates a document
	Delete document	Deletes a FileNet document
	Download content	Downloads the content of the specified repository
	Retrieve documents	Retrieves documents
	Retrieve documents with ACL	Retrieves the Access Control List (ACL) information about documents by using identifiers
	Update document	Updates a document
Folders	Create folder	Creates a folder
	Delete folder	Deletes a folder
	Retrieve folders	Retrieves folders
	Retrieve folders with ACL	Retrieves the Access Control List (ACL) information about folders by using identifiers
	Update folder	Updates a folder
Group members	Retrieve group members	Retrieves information about group members by using identifiers
Role members	Retrieve role members	Retrieves all the role members by using identifiers
Users	Retrieve users	Retrieves a list of users

Examples

Dashboard tile for a template that uses IBM FileNet Content Manager

Use templates to quickly create flows for IBM FileNet Content Manager

Learn how to use App Connect templates to quickly create flows that complete actions on IBM FileNet Content Manager. For example, go to the Discover page and search for IBM FileNet.

Learn more