Confluence 2.8 : Persistence in Confluence
This page last changed on Jun 03, 2008 by dtaylor.
There are three main persistence APIs which are used in Confluence:
Because Bandana is the primary persistence API used by plugin developers, it will be covered in more detail below. HibernateConfluence uses the open source persistence framework Hibernate. Confluence 2.2.x uses Hibernate version 2.1.8. Each object to be persisted has a *.hbm.xml file which sits in the same directory as the associated class in the Confluence web application. For example, Label.class has an associated Label.hbm.xml which describes how label objects will be persisted. The particular details vary from class to class, but typically include:
All this data is expressed in the standard Hibernate mapping format. In some cases, there is a single mapping file for all subclasses of a particular class. For example, ContentEntityObject.hbm.xml includes mappings for pages, news, mail and space descriptions. The Hibernate mapping files are listed in mappingResources bean in applicationContext.xml. Although it might be possible to extend Confluence's database through Hibernate, this is not recommended. There are a few downfalls with extending our Hibernate configuration:
Avoid using Confluence's database to store custom data – use content properties or Bandana instead. BandanaBandana is an Atlassian framework for persistence which uses XStream to convert arbitrary Java objects into XML for storage. The concepts used in Bandana are very simple:
Based on this design, the BandanaManager has methods for storing and retrieving values from a context by key:
For plugins, it is recommended to use a key for your Bandana values that includes the full package name of your plugin. For example, a theme plugin might use a key like org.acme.confluence.mytheme.importantPreference. Prior to Confluence 2.3, this XML was written to the filesystem in the Confluence home directory. The file config/confluence-global.bandana.xml stores the global context, and there is a file config/spaceKey/confluence-space.bandana.xml with the configuration for each space. In Confluence 2.3 and above, Bandana data is written to the BANDANA table in the database, with three columns for context, key and an XML-serialized value. To get access to the BandanaManager from your plugin code, normally you only need to include a private BandanaManager field with an associated setter method. Spring will automatically call the setter method before the first time your plugin is called. public class MyMacro extends BaseMacro { private BandanaManager bandanaManager; // setter called by Spring public void setBandanaManager(BandanaManager bandanaManager) { this.bandanaManager = bandanaManager; } // main method of macro public String execute(...) { // do stuff with bandanaManager return "..."; } } Content propertiesAnother form of persistence, content properties are key-value pairs associated with a ContentEntityObject and stored in the database. |
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Document generated by Confluence on Jun 24, 2008 18:04 |