Here is a new attempt to implement Alias Set and ACL Template in a way that can be more meaningful. The Major drawback in the previous implementation was that the Alias Set was associated with a single user. As the ACL Template was always being assigned by the same user, every time Alias was resolved to the same value unless the user was associated with a new Alias Set.
Alias Sets can be used in a much better way if the Alias can be resolved to different values at different instances. One of the easiest ways to achieve it is by associating the Alias Set directly with the Sysobject. If it was followed in previous case, different ACLs could have been applied to different Sysobjects while using only one ACL Template and multiple Alias Sets.
The attribute of dm_sysobject that is responsible for its relation with an Alias Set is r_alias_set_id. It stores the r_object_id of the Alias Set. It appeared to me that the only possible (and meaningful) way of associating a Sysobject and an Alias Set should be through DFC. I started my search for a method of IDfSysObject that can be used for the purpose. But I failed myserably in my effort. I couldn’t find a method as per my expectation. Finally I resolved to my ultimate rescuer, Google. I found a post regarding Permission Set Template by Johnny. In his comments he has mentioned, “I manually set the r_alias_set_id directly against the object that I am assigning the PST to.” I was surprised at the ease and simplicity of his statement. I was trying to achieve the same. I had an understanding that the r_ attributes are read-only with r_version_label being an exception. Still I descided to try the setString method of IDfSysObject.
The Field Setup:
Five Users created: TestUser1, TestUser2, TestUser3, TestUser4, TestUser5.
Five Alias Sets: TestUserAlias01, TestUserAlias02 …. TestUserAlias05.
An ACL Template: TestACLTemplate
Each Alias Set has a corresponding user name as the Alias Value. The process of creating the set-up was similar to that in the earlier case.
The Game:
Following is the fragment of DFC code used. Five objects of type dm_document are created, they are associated with corresponding Alias Sets and finally the ACL Template is applied on the newly created objects.
***************************************************************
for(int i=1; i<= 5; i++){
IDfDocument document = (IDfDocument) dfSession
.newObject("dm_document");
if (document != null) {
document.setObjectName("TestAliasObject_00"+i);
document.setContentType("pdf");
document.setFile("C:Test.pdf");
document.link("/dmadmin");
// can be a business logic
document.setString("r_alias_set_id",
dfSession.getObjectByQualification
("dm_alias_set where object_name = "
+"'TestUserAlias0"+i+"'")
.getObjectId().toString());
document.setACLName("TestACLTemplate");
document.setACLDomain("ASSAPArchive");
document.save();
} }
***************************************************************
The main concern was the highlighted statement. Before reading Johnny’s post there was no reason to believe that it can ever work.
It was established that the understanding regarding r_ attributes was a misconception. At the least there is one more attribute which is an exception to the rule. Updating r_alias_set_id through DQL was also successful.
Anyway, my part in the game was over and it was time to verify the results.
Result:
Benefit:
Consider a case where the permission of all the users has to be changed from Write to Version. In the current set-up it can be achieved by updating only the Template Permission Set. If instead ACLs were used, all of them would have to be updated individually.
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