8 Understanding the Category Service

The Category Service provides the following category-related operations:

Creating a category
Fetching category details, given the category ID
Listing containers under a given category
Updating the category definition
Deleting a category

Apart from the preceding operations, it also provides bulk operations to create and delete multiple categories in a single invocation. This chapter addresses the task of Creating a Category.

Creating a Category

The following is an example for creating a category:

Example 8-1 Creating a Category

import java.util.Date;import java.io.*;import java.util.*;import javax.mail.*;import javax.mail.internet.*;

import org.apache.axis.transport.http.HTTPConstants;import oracle.discussions.ws.exceptions.TdWSException;import oracle.discussions.ws.beans.*;import oracle.discussions.ws.AuthenticationServiceServiceLocator;import oracle.discussions.ws.AuthenticationServiceSoapBindingStub;import oracle.discussions.ws.AuthenticationService;import oracle.discussions.ws.CategoryServiceSoapBindingStub;import oracle.discussions.ws.CategoryServiceServiceLocator;import oracle.discussions.ws.CategoryService;

public class WSClient{  private static AuthenticationService as = null;    public static String getCookie() throws Exception  {      //STEP - 0: User Login      //Create the service locator for authentication service. The locator
      //contains information about the Web Services endpoint.             AuthenticationServiceServiceLocator assl = new
                              AuthenticationServiceServiceLocator();            //Get the handle to the actual webservices interface.             as = assl.getAuthenticationService();            //Indicate to the server that the client is interested in maintaining
            //session.            //HTTP is stateless and the user state is maintained in the session.            //Unless the user is willing to participate in a session, user state
            //cannot be preserved.             ((AuthenticationServiceSoapBindingStub)as).setMaintainSession(true);            //Invoke the actual login webservices call.              as.login("td_superuser","welcome1");            //Retrieve the cookie. The cookie is set on successful authentication
             String cookie = (String)((AuthenticationServiceSoapBindingStub)as)
                                    ._getCall().getMessageContext()
                                   .getProperty(HTTPConstants.HEADER_COOKIE);
             System.out.println("Cookie : " + cookie);
             return cookie;
         }
 
        public static void main(String args[]) 
        {
           try
           { 
             //STEP - 0: User Login
              String cookie = getCookie();    
 
             //STEP - 1: Locate the web services end point.
             //The web services locator contains the webservices end point
             //address
             //Hence instantiate the service locator.
              CategoryServiceServiceLocator fssl = new
                                CategoryServiceServiceLocator();
 
             //Get a handle to the actual web service.
              CategoryService fs = fssl.getCategoryService();
             //Indicate to the server that the user is willing to participate in
             //the session.             //Since HTTP is stateless, all the client data is maintained in the
             //session.              ((CategoryServiceSoapBindingStub)fs).setMaintainSession(true);             //Set the cookie retrieved in the call to login webservice.             //The cookie asserts user's identity to the server.              ((javax.xml.rpc.Stub)fs)._setProperty(HTTPConstants.HEADER_
                                                    COOKIE,cookie);             //Invoke the actual web services call.              CategoryDefinition cDefn = new CategoryDefinition();              cDefn.setName("My Category");              cDefn.setDisplayName("My Category");              cDefn.setDescription("My Category");              cDefn.setWithAnnouncementBoard(true);
             //- 1 indicates that a root level category is created
              Category aContainer = fs.create(-1,cDefn);              if(aContainer != null)             {               System.out.println("Container Type :" +
                                      aContainer.getContainerType());                 System.out.println("Creation Date :" +
                                        aContainer.getCreationDate().getTime());          System.out.println("Creator :" + aContainer.getCreator());          System.out.println("Description :" + aContainer.getDescription());          System.out.println("Display Path :" + aContainer.getDisplayPath());          System.out.println("Display Name :" + aContainer.getDisplayName());
          LastPost lp = aContainer.getLastPost();          if(lp != null)          {              System.out.println("Author :" + lp.getLastpostAuthor());              System.out.println("Date :" + lp.getLastpostDate());              System.out.println("Forum ID :" + lp.getLastpostForumId());              System.out.println("Topic id :" + lp.getLastpostTopicId());              System.out.println("Message Id :" + lp.getLastpostMessageId());          }          System.out.println("Is Favorite :" + aContainer.isFavorite());          System.out.println("Is New :" + aContainer.isNewFolder());          System.out.println("Is New Since Last Visit :" +
                                  aContainer.isNewSinceLastVisit());          System.out.println("Is New Since Session :" +
                                   aContainer.isNewSinceSession());          System.out.println("Name :" + aContainer.getName());          System.out.println("Id :" + aContainer.getId());          System.out.println("is category type :" + aContainer.isCategoryType());          System.out.println("Web ui URL :" + aContainer.getWebuiURL());          System.out.println("Rss URL :" + aContainer.getRssURL());          System.out.println("Has ann forum :" +
                                  aContainer.isAnnouncementsBoardPresent());          System.out.println("Parent id :" + aContainer.getParentId());       }      //STEP - 2: User Logout       logout();
     }     catch(TdWSException ex)     {         System.out.println("Error Code :" + ex.getErrorCode());         System.out.println("Error Message :" + ex.getErrorMessage());         String[] trace = ex.getServerStackTrace();         if(trace != null)         {             for(int i = 0 ; i < trace.length ; i++)                 System.out.println("trace[" + i + "]" + trace[i]);         }     }     catch(Exception ex)     {         System.out.println("Never went into tdex :" + ex.getMessage());           ex.printStackTrace();     }
   }
   public static void logout() throws Exception   {        System.out.println("User logout.");       //Once all the webservices operations are done, invoke logout        //operation.       //On logout, user state is destroyed and the cookie is invalidated.        as.logout();        System.out.println("Done");    }
}

The create() method of the categoryService interface creates a new category in the repository. If the value of lParentId is -1 then a root-level category is created. Otherwise, a category is created under the container represented by lParentId. An exception is raised if lParentId does not pertain to a valid category.

The properties of the category to be created are specified in the category definition bean (cDefn in this example).

Note:

The category name and the category display name are mandatory. They are unique arguments in the category definition bean and hence they cannot be null.

The sample output for Example 8-1 is as follows:

Cookie : JSESSIONID=8c57046a22b8a4e4d7408338486da27bb6988d0322f2Container Type :1Creation Date :Sun Feb 26 20:44:53 PST 2006Creator :td_superuserDescription :My CategoryDisplay Path :/My CategoryDisplay Name :My CategoryIs Favorite :falseIs New :falseIs New Since Last Visit :falseIs New Since Session :falseName :My categoryId :85770is category type :trueWeb ui URL :http://stacx01:8888/discussions/app/mainAction.do?fid=85770Rss URL :http://stacx01:8888/discussions/rss/facility?fid=85770Has ann forum :trueParent id :-1User logout.Done