Problem:
In one of my projects I needed to show some content nodes in Tree structure in my JSP and then need to delete few of them with inline editing without leaving the page i.e. asynchronously. So I started looking for possible solutions.
Solution:
This blog is about all those findings.
There are two most common ways to manipulate a Node in CQ repository and so for deletion of a node.
Using JCR APIs –
In this approach, we need to create a custom servlet. We can use javax.jcr.Item interface (http://www.day.com/maven/jsr170/javadocs/jcr-2.0/javax/jcr/Item.html#remove%28%29 ) remove() method inside servlet code to delete a node. Then we can invoke this custom servlet from our JSP and pass the target node path (which needs to be removed).
Using sling APIs -
The SlingPostServlet – using : operation = delete
From HTML/JSP Pages:
<form action=”/node” method=”POST”>
<input name=”: operation”
type=”hidden” value=”delete”>
</form>
OR by using Curl commands (mostly used for testing and deployment script purpose)
To remove existing content just address the item to be removed and set the : operation parameter to delete. For example the following command line removes the /content/sample page:
$ curl -F”:operation=delete” http://host/content/sample
Reference: Manipulating Content: The SlingPostServlet
My Approach-
JCR API approach is more appropriate for my usage but I don’t want to add one more servlet for this simple purpose and started exploring any endpoint which can do Node deletion for me. There I found /bin/wcmcommand for my rescue. This API is less documented so I am not sure if this is the recommended way to achieve my goal. But as far as my knowledge goes it uses the com.day.cq.wcm.api.PageManager interface delete() method internally to delete a node which is an elegant and optimized way to remove any node in JCR repository.
Reference: http://dev.day.com/docs/en/cq/current/javadoc/com/day/cq/wcm/api/PageManager.html
Code for delete.jsp : I created a example component called delete.jsp for experimentation
This example has two modes of using /bin/wcmcommand
- Using simple Post method
- Using AJAX : this is what I finally used my case.
<%@include file=”/libs/foundation/global.jsp” %>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>How to delete a content node from a JSP in CQ authoring environments</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR=”#FDF5E6″><H2>Delete using simple POST operation</H2>
<FORM ACTION=”/bin/wcmcommand” METHOD=”POST”>
Node Path to Delete:
<INPUT TYPE=”TEXT” NAME=”path” VALUE=”"> (e.g. ‘/content/testdelete/deletePage1′)<BR>
Char-set:
<INPUT TYPE=”TEXT” NAME=”_charset_” VALUE=”utf-8″><BR>
Command:
<INPUT TYPE=”TEXT” NAME=”cmd” VALUE=”deletePage”><BR>
Force Delete:
<INPUT TYPE=”TEXT” NAME=”force” VALUE=”false”>(true/false)
<P>
<INPUT TYPE=”SUBMIT” value=”Delete Node” style=”width: 200px”>
</FORM>
<H2>Delete via AJAX Call</H2>
Node Path to Delete:
<INPUT TYPE=”TEXT” ID=”pathAJ” NAME=”pathAJ” VALUE=”"> (e.g. ‘/content/testdelete/deletePage1′)<BR>
Char-set:
<INPUT TYPE=”TEXT” NAME=”_charset_” VALUE=”utf-8″><BR>
Command:
<INPUT TYPE=”TEXT” NAME=”cmd” VALUE=”deletePage”><BR>
Force Delete:
<INPUT TYPE=”TEXT” NAME=”force” VALUE=”false”> (true/false)<BR>
<P>
<input TYPE=”button” value=”Delete Node” style=”width: 200px” onclick=”performDelete();”>
<div id=”respText”></div></BODY>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
function performDelete() {
var response = null;
var url = “/bin/wcmcommand”;
var pathObj= document.getElementById(‘pathAJ’);
if(pathObj)
{
var params = “path=”+encodeURIComponent(pathObj.value)+”&_charset_=utf-8&cmd=deletePage&force=false”;
var request = document.all ? new ActiveXObject(“Microsoft.XMLHTTP”) : new XMLHttpRequest();
//alert(params);
request.open(“post”, url, false);
request.setRequestHeader(“Content-Type”, “application/x-www-form-urlencoded”);
request.send(params);
var resp= request.responseText;
document.getElementById(‘respText’).innerHTML=resp;}
}
</script>
</HTML>
Thanks for your time.
P.S.: This is the solution I found sufficient for my requirements but its not validated or formally recommended from Adobe CQ product team.
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