content-service (Content as a Service Application)

Content as a Service (CaaS) is a new type of CMS which is different than traditional CMS. Traditional CMS provides one stop shop solution for creating websites, managing and publishing its content.

Content as a Service (Caas) emphases essentially on content management without thinking about the type of end-users(which could be for any channel like mobile apps, websites, other devices). CaaS counsels to use CMS only for managing content instead of handling its output/presentation.

Characteristics of CaaS

• Content would be retrieved only using simple REST API (Microservices based).
• Content would be retrieved in well defined structure (JSON).
• Web interface would be available for Admin (Content Writers, Business Users) to manage Content easily.
• Hooks would be available to act upon Content updates like to send notifications etc.
• Content could be hosted in the cloud.

CaaS Vs Traditional CMS

• Structured response for Content
• Seperation of Content and Presentation (Decoupled)
• Content availablity on Cloud

Usages of Caas

• Content would be available as backend/APIs for Web / Mobile Apps or other channels.
• Content could be published for multi-channels easily.
• Content would be integrated into Rich WebApps using latest MV* Frameworks
• Content Integration with existing applications/services
• Content to be presented on highly customized UX
• Content creation would be done programatically through APIs provided as Microservices.

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High Level Component Architecture (Generic)

Installation

Docker

Docker is a pre-requisite to build and start content-service application. Click here for docker setup instructions

Clone code

git clone https://github.com/abhiyaantrikee/content-service.git

Build

cd content-service
docker-compose build

Start servers

docker-compose up -d

• docker-ip: docker-machine ip
• content-service (Strongloop explorer): https://docker-ip:9000/explorer

[Win/Mac]: For the ports to be accessible on localhost, add port-forwarding in virtualbox.

Content as a Service (CaaS) - API Details

Content Management API (Admin)	Path	Description
GET	/contents	Retrieve All Content [filters-Optional parameter based on this content will be fetched]
POST	/contents	Create Content
PATCH	/contents	Partially Update a Content (Workflow update)
PUT	/contents	Update a Content

Content Data API (Users)	Path	Description
GET	/contents	Retrieve Content ( using Filters and status=PUBLISHED and endDate > Current Date)

Usage

content-service API`s are protected with ACL, in order to use the API we need to pass authorization(access) token in the request header.

Before getting the Access Token we need to create the following using the APIs

• User
• Role
• RoleMapping

There are various APIs which are available and would be leveraged to perform the above mentioned actions.

HTTP METHOD	URI	DESCRIPTION	SAMPLE REQUEST	SAMPLE RESPONSE
POST	/api/Users	This would create a USER in Database	{"username": "bob","email": "bob@test.com","password":"123"}	{"username": "bob","email": "bob@test.com","id": "593d993f5387fd000f6e066b"}
POST	/api/Roles	This would create a ROLE in Database	{"name": "write"}	{"id": "593d99825387fd000f6e066d","name": "write","created":"2017-06-11T19:26:58.337Z","modified": "2017-06-11T19:26:58.337Z"}
POST	/api/RoleMappings	This would create a MAPPING between USER and ROLE in Database	{"principalType": "USER","principalId":"593d993f5387fd000f6e066b","roleId": "593d99825387fd000f6e066d"}	{"id": "593d99b95387fd000f6e066e","principalType": "USER","principalId": "593d993f5387fd000f6e066b","roleId": "593d99825387fd000f6e066d"}

Once the USER, ROLE and ROLE MAPPING is created, ACCESS TOKEN would be generated as below:

Steps to get access token:

1. Use POST - https://docker-ip:9000/api/Users/login to get the access token. Payload example:

{"email": "bob@test.com", "password": "123"}

Response

{
  "id": "xEcPhyKQMk3IgmQFdL670a11OXQKSxCeLjUDLS9Pk24HuIO7oaZApO8zAPumd0LU",
  "ttl": 1209600,
  "created": "2017-05-23T04:32:26.105Z",
  "userId": 1
}

2. Set the access token with the value present under id tag (in above response). 3. Use POST - https://docker-ip:9000/api/Contents/ Payload example:

{
  "id": 0,
  "title": "Content Title",
  "name": "Content Name",
  "startDate": "2017-05-22T11:06:30.754Z",
  "endDate": "2019-05-22T11:06:30.754Z",
  "feature": "Content's Feature",
  "format": "TEXT",
  "version": "1.0",
  "majorVersionFlag": true,
  "assetUrl": "Content Asset URL",
  "text": "Content TEXT",
  "status": "CREATED",
  "createdBy": "USER CREATED THE CONTENT",
  "createdDate": "2017-05-22T11:06:30.756Z",
  "updatedDate": "2017-05-22T11:06:30.756Z",
  "updatedBy": "USER UPDATED THE CONTENT",
  "locale": "CONTENT's LOCATE",
  "extendedData": {},
  "workflowList": [
    {
      "userName": "USER UPDATED THE WORKFLOW",
      "role": "USER's ROLE",
      "comment": "COMMENTS, if any provided by the CONTENT Owner",
      "date": "2017-05-22T11:06:30.758Z",
      "id": 0
    }
  ]
}

4. Use GET - https://docker-ip:9000/api/Contents/

Note

MongoDB is used as a database. Currently, it is part of same docker as of application. This would change in future release and would be independent of application (to be inline with the architecture).

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MAINTAINER/CONTRIBUTOR

Amerish Kesar : amerishk@gmail.com Ashutosh Ranjan : ashutoshranjan.33@gmail.com

Want to contribute to content-service? Please read CONTRIBUTING.