Introduction

IBM Content Cortex 26.0.0 introduces metadata authoring support for CMOD extensions, enabling administrators to manage ArchiveReport and ArchiveAbstractSection content models within the Administration Console for Content Platform Engine (ACCE).The implementation leverages the existing metadata authoring infrastructure, minimizing the amount of custom development required while ensuring a consistent administration experience for users defining and managing report-based content.

Background

The CMOD extensions introduce the following new classes:

• ArchiveAbstractSection
• ArchiveReport

These classes extend the CMOD content model and require support within the metadata authoring environment so that administrators can configure and manage them similarly to other Content Engine classes.

Because metadata authoring in ACCE is designed to support subclassing and customization through a common framework, most of the required functionality is inherited automatically. However, several targeted enhancements were necessary to provide a complete administration experience.

What’s New in 26.0.0

1. Class Visibility in Metadata Authoring

To enable administrators to work with the new CMOD classes, both ArchiveAbstractSection and ArchiveReport have been added to the list of classes displayed under:

Data Design → Classes → Other Classes

This allows administrators to:

•      View the new classes within ACCE.
•      Define subclasses based on the CMOD classes.
•      Configure metadata properties using the standard authoring interface.
•      Leverage existing class customization capabilities without additional tooling.

Since the metadata authoring framework already supports subclassing and customization patterns, no major architectural changes were required for this portion of the implementation.

2. Storage Policy Configuration for Report Classes

A key enhancement in 26.0.0 is the introduction of storage configuration support for ArchiveReport classes.

Historically, the Document and Annotation classes expose the following settings on the General tab of the class property pane:

•       Default Storage Policy
•       Default Storage Area

These settings determine where content associated with instances of the class will be stored.

To maintain consistency and provide equivalent functionality for report objects, the same configuration options are now available for ArchiveReport class definitions.

User Experience

When editing a report class definition, administrators can now:

1. Open the class properties.
2. Navigate to the General tab.
3. Configure: 

• • Default Storage Area
  •  Default Storage Policy

Technical Implementation Overview

The implementation focused on extending existing framework capabilities rather than introducing new metadata authoring mechanisms.

Metadata Authoring Updates

• Registered ArchiveAbstractSection and ArchiveReport within the class hierarchy displayed in ACCE.
• Leveraged the existing class authoring framework for subclass support.
• Reused existing property-pane infrastructure.
• Added support for displaying the Audit Definition tab for Archive Report and Archive Abstract Section class definitions.
• Extended metadata authoring behaviour to support CMOD-specific class customization requirements.

Storage Configuration Support

• Extended class property handling for ArchiveReport.
• Added support for displaying and managing:
• Default Storage Policy
• Default Storage Area
• Aligned behaviour with existing Document and Annotation implementations.
• Extended object store initialization logic to establish a default storage area for ArchiveReport classes, consistent with Document and Annotation behaviour.

User Interface Customizations

• Suppressed the Default Instance Security tab when displaying ArchiveReport class definitions and their subclasses.
• Simplified the class definition experience by hiding configuration options that are not applicable to CMOD report classes.
• Maintained consistency with the existing ACCE property-pane framework while introducing class-specific behavior where required.

Property Definition Validation

• Added filtering logic to the Property Definitions tab for subclasses of ArchiveAbstractSection.
• Restricted the list of available property templates to:
• Singleton properties (Cardinality = SINGLE)
• Non-object properties (DataType ≠ OBJECT)
• Prevented selection of multi-valued and object-valued property templates.
• Enforced CMOD data model requirements at design time to reduce configuration errors and improve metadata consistency.

Benefits to Administrators

With these enhancements, administrators can:

• Author and manage CMOD report classes directly within ACCE.
• Configure storage settings using familiar interfaces.
• Create report subclasses without additional customization work.
• Benefit from automatic storage area initialization when creating new object stores.
• Maintain consistency across all content-oriented class definitions.

Conclusion

IBM Content Cortex 26.0.0 extends metadata authoring support for the CMOD extensions by integrating ArchiveReport and ArchiveAbstractSection into the ACCE class management experience. The release also introduces dedicated storage policy and storage area configuration for report classes and extends object store initialization logic to automatically establish default storage settings.

These enhancements provide a seamless and consistent administrative experience while enabling organizations to take full advantage of report-based content models.

@Harisha Paildar