Creating a new document through the Hippo Repository Workflow API

It's already a couple of months ago that I wrote about using the Hippo Repository Workflow API. Back then, I explained how to modify an existing document, and request publication. Ever since that blog post I have been getting the same question over and over again: how to create a new document through the repository API?

If you read the previous blog post, and looked at the worklfow API, it might not be directly obvious how to create a new document through the workflow. Think about how a document is created though: it is always created as a child node of an existing node: the parent folder. Creating a new document is actually part of the Folder Workflow!

Knowing this, it all becomes very easy. Let's step through the code:

Let's hardcode some values for simplicity's sake:

String folderPath = "/content/documents/news";
String newDocumentName = "Hippo CMS 7.1 released!";
String newDocumentType = "defaultcontent:news";

We will be creating a new document inside the folder /content/documents/news. This is actually a node of type hippostd:folder, which means a FolderWorkflow applies to this node. We will be creating a new document of type "defaultcontent:news", as provided with the Hippo CMS Quickstart WAR. We will call the new document "Hippo CMS 7.1 released!".

Next, we get the folder node from the repository session:

// get the folder node
HippoNode folderNode = (HippoNode) session.getItem(folderPath);

We also need the workflow manager:

// get the workflow manager
HippoWorkspace workspace = (HippoWorkspace) folderNode.getSession().getWorkspace();
WorkflowManager workflowMgr = workspace.getWorkflowManager();

Using the workflow manager, get the folder node's workflow:

// get the folder node's workflow
Workflow workflow = workflowMgr.getWorkflow("internal", folderNode);

Check if the workflow is a folder workflow, and cast it to a FolderWorkflow object:

if (workflow instanceof FolderWorkflow) {
    FolderWorkflow fw = (FolderWorkflow) workflow;

Now that we have the folder workflow, we can simply call the add method. It takes three String parameters: the category ("new-document"), the node type, and the node name:

// create the new document
fw.add("new-document", newDocumentType, newDocumentName);

That's it! Run the program, and check your CMS. There should be a new document "Hippo CMS 7.1 Released!" visible under the "news" folder. You can edit and publish this document just like any other. To modify the document through the API, see my previous post on this subject.

For your convenience, here is the complete class:

package org.example;

import java.rmi.RemoteException;

import javax.jcr.RepositoryException;
import javax.jcr.Session;

import org.hippoecm.repository.HippoRepository;
import org.hippoecm.repository.HippoRepositoryFactory;
import org.hippoecm.repository.api.HippoNode;
import org.hippoecm.repository.api.HippoWorkspace;
import org.hippoecm.repository.api.Workflow;
import org.hippoecm.repository.api.WorkflowException;
import org.hippoecm.repository.api.WorkflowManager;
import org.hippoecm.repository.standardworkflow.FolderWorkflow;

public class CreateDocument {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Session session;
        HippoRepository repository;
        try {
            repository = HippoRepositoryFactory.getHippoRepository("rmi://localhost:1099/hipporepository");
            session = repository.login("author", "author".toCharArray());
            
            String folderPath = "/content/documents/news";
            String newDocumentName = "Hippo CMS 7.1 released!";
            String newDocumentType = "defaultcontent:news";

            // get the folder node
            HippoNode folderNode = (HippoNode) session.getItem(folderPath);
            
            // get the workflow manager
            HippoWorkspace workspace = (HippoWorkspace) folderNode.getSession().getWorkspace();
            WorkflowManager workflowMgr = workspace.getWorkflowManager();
            
            // get the folder node's workflow
            Workflow workflow = workflowMgr.getWorkflow("internal", folderNode);
            
            if (workflow instanceof FolderWorkflow) {
                FolderWorkflow fw = (FolderWorkflow) workflow;
                
                // create the new document
                fw.add("new-document", newDocumentType, newDocumentName);
                
                System.out.println("New document '" + newDocumentName + "' of type '" + newDocumentType + "' created");
            }
            else {
                System.out.println("Workflow is not an instance of FolderWorkflow");
                return;
            }
            
        } catch (RepositoryException e) {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        } catch (RemoteException e) {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        } catch (WorkflowException e) {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}