Alfresco Search Query Catalog Builder

Before upgrading to Alfresco Search Enterprise, verifying that every different search string used in the current ACS environment support is recommended. This tool provides a simple framework to build a Search Query Catalog that may be used as reference for this task.

The project includes following elements:

• ACS Sample Docker Compose Deployment, includes a pre-configured Audit application for searching actions
• ACS REST API Client, includes a Spring Boot app to process the entries from ACS Audit application

Docker Compose

Alfresco Docker Image has been customized to enable Search Queries auditing by adding following configuration to docker-compose.yml file:

alfresco:
    environment:
        JAVA_OPTS : '
            -Daudit.enabled=true
            -Daudit.tagging.enabled=false
        '
    volumes:
        - ./alfresco/config/SearchAudit.xml:/usr/local/tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco/extension/audit/SearchAudit.xml

The audit configuration is based in SearchService.java class, including audit entries for the following paths:

/alfresco-api/post/SearchService/query/args
/alfresco-api/post/SearchService/selectNodes/args

REST API Client

The REST API Client is using the audit entity from the Core API. Audit Entries are processed in batches, adding every search query to the Search Query Catalog only according to similarity criteria.

Configuration can be made in src/main/resources/application.properties file:

# Alfresco Server
content.service.url=http://localhost:8080
content.service.security.basicAuth.username=admin
content.service.security.basicAuth.password=admin
content.service.path=/alfresco/api/-default-/public/alfresco/versions/1
search.service.path=/alfresco/api/-default-/public/search/versions/1

# Audit parameters
audit.app.id=search
audit.api.max.items=100
audit.query.similarity.threshold=0.95

Using the framework

Start Docker Compose to record Search Query entries into the Audit Module.

$ cd docker
$ docker compose up

Once ACS is started, you may navigate the Share Web Application or the ACA / ADW applications. Additionally, you can run all the integrations or scheduled jobs in order to have a representative set of common actions in your deployment.

Audit information will be stored in alf_audit_* database tables and audit entry details can be retrieved from REST API. For instance, to get the information for the entry 1 of the search audit app, following HTTP GET request may be used:

http://localhost:8080/alfresco/api/-default-/public/alfresco/versions/1/audit-applications/search/audit-entries/1

{
  "entry": {
    "createdAt": "2022-10-24T09:57:15.402+0000",
    "createdByUser": {
      "id": "admin",
      "displayName": "Administrator"
    },
    "values": {
      "/search/SELECT/contextNodeRef/value": "5b9a8bdb-c967-4fba-ad99-db6e4fa858de",
      "/search/SELECT/parameters/value": null,
      "/search/SELECT/xpath/value": "./app:company_home/st:sites",
      "/search/SELECT/followAllParentLinks/value": false,
      "/search/SELECT/language/value": "xpath"
    },
    "auditApplicationId": "search",
    "id": 1
  }
}

Once all the audit information has been populated, compile the Alfresco Rest Client application to get the Search Query Catalog. Before building and running the project, verify that src/main/resources/application.properties file includes the right settings.

$ cd alfresco-rest-client
$ mvn clean package

$ java -jar target/alfresco-rest-client-1.0.0.jar

SYNTAX db-cmis
select * from cmis:document order by cmis:lastModificationDate
select * from cmis:document where contains('PATH:\"/app:company_home/st:sites/cm:swsdp/*/*"') order by cmis:lastModificationDate
-----------------
SYNTAX xpath
./app:company_home/st:sites
-----------------
SYNTAX cmis-alfresco
select * from cmis:document where contains('PATH:\"/app:company_home/st:sites/cm:swsdp/*/*"') order by cmis:lastModificationDate
-----------------
SYNTAX lucene
 +@cm\:modified:[2022\-10\-14T00\:00\:00.000 TO 2022\-10\-21T23\:59\:59.999] +@cm\:modifier:"admin" +TYPE:"cm:content" -TYPE:"cm:systemfolder" -TYPE:"fm:forums" -TYPE:"fm:forum" -TYPE:"fm:topic" -TYPE:"fm:post" +(TYPE:"content" OR TYPE:"app:filelink" OR TYPE:"folder")
+PATH:"/app:company_home/st:sites/cm:swsdp/cm:documentLibrary//*" +@cm\:modified:[2022\-10\-14T00\:00\:00.000 TO 2022\-10\-21T23\:59\:59.999] +@cm\:modifier:"admin" +TYPE:"cm:content" -TYPE:"cm:systemfolder" -TYPE:"fm:forums" -TYPE:"fm:forum" -TYPE:"fm:topic" -TYPE:"fm:post" +(TYPE:"content" OR TYPE:"app:filelink" OR TYPE:"folder")
+PATH:"/app:company_home/st:sites/cm:swsdp/cm:documentLibrary//*" +PATH:"/cm:generalclassifiable/member"
+PATH:"/app:company_home/st:sites/cm:swsdp/cm:documentLibrary//*" +TYPE:"cm:content" +@cm\:content.mimetype:image/*
+PATH:"/cm:generalclassifiable/cm:Languages/*" -PATH:"/cm:generalclassifiable/cm:Languages/member"
+PATH:"/cm:generalclassifiable/cm:Languages/cm:English/*" -PATH:"/cm:generalclassifiable/cm:Languages/cm:English/member"
-----------------
SYNTAX fts-alfresco
(bu AND +TYPE:"cm:content") AND -TYPE:"cm:thumbnail" AND -TYPE:"cm:failedThumbnail" AND -TYPE:"cm:rating" AND -TYPE:"fm:post" AND -ASPECT:"sys:hidden" AND -cm:creator:System
(budget ) AND ({http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}content.size:("0".."10240" ))
+TYPE:"{http://www.alfresco.org/model/site/1.0}site" AND ( cm:name:" swsdp*" OR  cm:title: ("swsdp*" ) OR cm:description:"swsdp")
PATH:"/"
TYPE:"cm:content" AND (cm:content.mimetype:"application/msword") AND (budget )
TYPE:"{http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}person" AND ("*admin*")
-----------------

Additional steps

When sharing the Search Query Catalog obtained with third parties, remember to apply any anonymization to sensitive data.