The atg.repository.Repository interface is the base definition of any repository implementation. This interface provides methods to access RepositoryItems, RepositoryViews and ItemDescriptors, corresponding to the three main elements of the repository.
Given a unique ID or set of IDs, you can retrieve items from the repository using the following methods:
RepositoryItem getItem(String pId, String pDescriptorName)
RepositoryItem[] getItems(String[] pIds, String pDescriptorName)
Depending on the repository implementation, item IDs may take different forms. In SQL repositories, a repository item ID by default is numeric and is auto-generated through the IdGenerator service. See ID Generators in the Core Dynamo Services chapter of the ATG Programming Guide. The SQL repository also supports composite repository item IDs. In that case, you can retrieve items from the repository using these methods:
RepositoryItem getItem(CompositeKey pId, String pDescriptorName)
RepositoryItem [] getItems(CompositeKey [] pIds, String pDescriptorName)In other cases, an item ID might be the path of the document, as in some of the file-system based repositories.
The Repository API includes the RepositoryItemDescriptor interface, a subinterface of atg.beans.DynamicBeanInfo (see Dynamic Beans: DynamicBeanInfo in the Nucleus: Organizing JavaBean Components chapter of the ATG Programming Guide). This lets you access the “dynamic bean info” of the available repository items, such as the property descriptors and property names, using this method:
RepositoryItemDescriptor getItemDescriptor(String pName)You can get the list of all the ItemDescriptors that are available from the itemDescriptorNames property.
