You extend the repository definition of the PublishingFileRepository in order to support new item types. Because files are either in text or binary format, most extensions require two new item types—one that extends textFileAsset and another that extends binaryFileAsset. You can extend either or both, as needed. You can also create multiple item types with the same supertype, as with the personalization item type.

Two requirements are important for custom item types:

Refer to the figure shown earlier in Versioned Content Repository, which shows the Item Type Hierarchy of the PublishingFileRepository.

By default, both textFileAsset and binaryFileAsset are extensions of fileAsset. The content property for fileAsset is defined as a transient property of a custom type, VersionFilePropertyDescriptor:

<property name="content"
property-type="atg.epub.file.VersionFilePropertyDescriptor"
</property>

VersionFilePropertyDescriptor is an extension of FilePropertyDescriptor that returns the content property as a java.io.File. It is required so ATG Content Administration can store the file asset contents on a file system. Make sure that your custom items do not override the VersionFilePropertyDescriptor property.

To extend the repository definition of the PublishingFileRepository, modify the repository’s definition file publishingFiles.xml:

Modify the definition by layering on a new definition file. Place the new file in the config directory of your versioned module at /atg/epub/file/publishingFiles.xml.

In the FTPFileSystem example, you want to manage versioned FTP assets that are ultimately deployed as text and binary files to a target FTP server. The repository must be extended to support two new item types:

The new definition file to layer on looks like this:

<item-descriptor name="ftpTextFileAsset" super-type="textFileAsset"
  content="true" sub-type-value="ftpTextFileAsset"
  display-name="FTP text file" item-cache-size="1000"
  query-cache-size="500">
</item-descriptor>

<item-descriptor name="ftpBinaryFileAsset" super-type="binaryFileAsset"
  content="true" sub-type-value="ftpBinaryFileAsset"
  display-name ="FTP binary file" item-cache-size="1000"
  query-cache-size="500">
</item-descriptor>

<item-descriptor name="fileAsset">
  <table name="epub_file_asset">
    <property name="type">
      <option value="ftpTextFileAsset" code="10001"/>
      <option value="ftpBinaryFileAsset" code="10002"/>
    </property>
  </table>
</item-descriptor>