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Managing Bookmarks with the Bookmark Tool

The Bookmark Tool is a utility pre-configured in the Accelerators for exporting and importing bookmarks to and from a directory structure.

What it’s for

The standard exporting/importing functionality available in the core ActivePivot API exports the bookmarks/ endpoint in the Content Server as a .json file. However, as the number of bookmarks delivered with Accelerators increase, this option presents a number of issues:

The .json file becomes cumbersome to track in git
Customisations are increasingly difficult to perform
Merging custom bookmarks with any Accelerator changes is awkward

To address these problems, this bookmark tool enables you to export the bookmarks as a directory structure that follows the hierarchy per visible in the UI. By having separate files for every bookmark:

Incorporating changes becomes easier
Git is able to track changes to individual files
Merging separate sets of bookmarks becomes as simple as copying custom files or directories to the appropriate location

Exporting

To export the Accelerator bookmarks:

Run the Accelerator as usual.
Configure the export behavior.
Run the main method of the ExportReferenceContentServer class.
(Optional) To export to a different folder, you can modify the frtb-content-server parameter of the exportBookmarks() call.

The Accelerators come with a set of properties loaded in the export class, that can be found in the src/test/resources folder of the respective starter module. You can find the properties in the ${accelerator-name}.test.properties file

Property	Description
`contentServer.bookmarks.export-to-file`	Determines whether the content server will be exported into a single `.json` file.
`contentServer.bookmarks.export-to-folder`	Determines whether the content server will be exported into a folder structure.
`contentServer.bookmarks.default-owners`	The list of user roles to be used as the default owners for a bookmark.
`contentServer.bookmarks.default-readers`	The list of user roles to be used as the default readers for a bookmark.
`contentServer.url`	The content server URL.

Importing

The Accelerators provide a default set of bookmarks in the accelerator-ui standalone module included in the release deliverables. The import behavior of the content service is configurable within the src/main/resources/${accelerator-name}.properties file in the starter project:

Property	Description
`contentServer.factory-reset`	Determines whether or not a reset will be performed. - `false` disables the reset - no bookmarks will be loaded over the ones already contained in your content server. - `true` and `file` performs a reset from the core .json file format. - `folder` performs a reset from the bookmark tool directory structure.
`contentServer.factory-reset.filename`	Defines the file to use for the `true` and `file` options.
`contentServer.factory-reset.folder-name`	Defines the folder to use for the `folder` option.
`contentServer.bookmarks.default-owners`	The list of user roles to be used as the default owners for a bookmark.
`contentServer.bookmarks.default-readers`	The list of user roles to be used as the default readers for a bookmark.

The file and folder names will be resolved using a Spring PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver, and the properties conform to its required format.

For an application built as a SpringBoot JAR, the properties have to be replaced with properly formatted absolute paths, as it is impossible to load folders directly from a JAR file.

Format

Export format

The bookmarks directory exported by this tool will contain the folders and files in the following structure:

Directory level	Contents
Root	`bookmarks-listing` directory - Contains the full set of bookmarks as displayed in the UI.
	`i18n.json`, and `settings.json` files.
`bookmarks-listing` directory	Any nested folders (as visible in the UI), together with a `folder-name_metadata.json` file that determines the description, owners, and readers of the bookmark folder.
	Any bookmarks at that level in the bookmark tree as a bookmark-name.json file, together with a `bookmark-name_metadata.json` file that determines the description, owners, and readers of the bookmark. For more information, see Permissions.

Bookmarks

Individual bookmarks (within bookmark-name.json files) conform to the ActiveUI/Content Server format. The Bookmark Tool offers no additional features or configuration options for bookmark content.

Metadata

bookmark-name_metadata.json files are configuration files for ActiveUI/Content Server auxiliary features.

The files support the following format:

{   "key": "d08",
    "description": "Description of folder or bookmark",
    "owners" : [ "ROLE_USER" ],
    "readers" : [ "ROLE_USER" ]

Property	Usage	Optionality
key	Unique identifier for the bookmark or folder. This key is used in the bookmark sharing feature in ActiveUI.	Optional. If no key is persisted, a hash of the name and the Content Server object definition will be used.
description	A description of the bookmark or folder. It is used as a tooltip within ActiveUI.	Optional. If no description is defined, the tooltip will not display a description field.
owners	An array of user roles with permissions to modify the bookmark or folder.	Optional. For more information, see Permissions.
readers	An array of user roles with permissions to view the bookmark or folder.	Optional. For more information, see Permissions.

Due to all supported properties being optional, the metadata files can be omitted altogether for new bookmarks. Once imported into the Content Server, the generated internal metadata must be exported (see Exporting), to guarantee key persistence.

Permissions

Behavior

If a folder or file does not have any permissions defined in the relevant metadata file, it uses the permissions of its parent. This inheritance policy is applied right through to the top of the bookmark tree.
If none of the files or folders have custom permissions, the default permissions passed into the library call will be used.

Impact on export and import

Which permissions get exported or imported depends on whether permissions are defined in the metadata file for the given folder or file in addition to its location in the bookmarks structure.

Position in bookmark structure	Export	Import
Top level	Only export permissions if different from the default	If there is no permission defined in the name_metadata.json file, use the default
Any other level	Only export permissions if different from parent	If there is no permission defined in the name_metadata.json file, use the default.

Example

In this example, the default permission is set as USER/USER and the bookmark structure is as follows:

Root
└── Bookmark1
└── Bookmark2
└── Folder1 ...............................[ROOT/USER]       
     ├── Folder4             
        ├── Bookmark4                
        ├── Bookmark5
     ├── Bookmark3......................[USER/USER]  
└── Folder2       
    ├── Bookmark6
└── Folder3       
    ├── Bookmark7        
    ├── Bookmark8

Custom permissions have been set for Folder1 and Bookmark3.
So they have their respective permissions files Folder1_metadata.json and Bookmark3_metadata.json
All children of Folder1 inherit its permissions [ROOT/USER] except for Bookmark3 which has its own permissions [USER/USER]
All other folders and files will use the default permissions as they have no permissions files set.

Merging or modifying bookmarks

To merge bookmarks, copy the relevant folders and bookmark files to the appropriate location within the bookmarks-listing directory, together with the name_metadata.json file, where appropriate.
To edit a bookmark, modify its .json file.

To edit the description and permissions of files and folders in the UI, modify the relevant name_metadata.json file.

If the file does not exist, create it with the following format:

-- Without Description --{  "owners" : [ "ROLE_USER" ],  "readers" : [ "ROLE_USER" ]}-- With Description --{  "description": "Description of folder or bookmark",  "owners" : [ "ROLE_USER" ],  "readers" : [ "ROLE_USER" ]}