5.4 Customizing Services

Content Server services are functions or procedures performed by the Content Server. Calling a Content Server service (making a service request) is the only way to communicate with the Content Server or to access the database.

Any service can be called externally (from outside the Content Server) or internally (from within the Content Server). Client services are usually called externally while administrative services are called internally. The service uses its own attributes and actions to execute the request, based on any parameters passed to the service.

The standard Content Server services are defined in the StandardServices table in DomainHome/resources/core/tables/std_services.htm. A service definition contains three main elements:

• The service name.

• The service attributes. The attributes define the following aspects of the service:

  • the service class, which specifies which Java class the service has access to. This determines what actions can be performed by the service.

  • the access level, which assigns a user permission level to the service.

  • a template page that specifies the template that displays the results of the service.

  • the service type which specifies if the service is to be executed as a sub-service inside another service

  • subjects notified, which specifies the subsystems to be notified by the service.

  • the error message that is returned by the service if no action error message overrides it.

• The service action, which is a colon-separated list that defines the following aspects of the action:

  • action type

  • action name

  • action parameters

  • action control mask

  • action error message

Understanding and using services is an integral part of creating components and thus customizing the Content Server. See the Chapter 6, "Integration Methods" for more details.