ModeShape server-client repositories synchronization

[amischler]

I want to deploy a server-client architecture based on ModeShape but I can't figure out how to configure ModeShape and Infinispan to achieve my goal.

Here is a typical use case:

• User A creates a node on the main server repository
• User B retrieves this node locally and edits its subtree and properties offline
• Once online again, user B pushes back this node to the main server repository and merges its content if necessary (i.e. the node has been also modified in the main repository)

So, my requirements are:

• I need the main server repository to hold all the data.
• I need each client to be able to fetch some specific nodes from the server repository and to store it locally.
• I need each client to be able to work offline (i.e. the main server repository is not reachable) in its local repository
• I need each client to be able to synchronize its local repository with the main repository once online and to merge the data if necessary

Do you have an idea how to get such a behavior by using the clustering options of ModeShape and/or Infinispan? Or maybe you can think of a better approach?

(cross-posted from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24608739/modeshape-server-client-repositories-synchronization)

[hchiorean]

ModeShape doesn't support the notion of a "persistent client". Infinispan does have a Remote Cache Loader, but it's a different API than the normal Cache Loader API and therefore ModeShape doesn't support it.

In a client-server setup, where the "server" runs a ModeShape repository (regardless if clustered/non-clustered), a "client" can interact with the repository in several ways:

     1) via the REST service - ModeShape's REST Service - ModeShape 3 - Project Documentation Editor

     2) via CMIS (using a CMIS-compliant client CMIS connector - ModeShape 3 - Project Documentation Editor)

     3) via WebDAV (Using Repositories with WebDAV in EAP - ModeShape 3 - Project Documentation Editor)

From all these probably (1) is the most mature in terms of capabilities. However, none of these support the idea of persisting data on the client. So if this is a requirement in your case you need to implement this from scratch (most likely translating Nodes and node-like structures into something that you can marshal/unmarshal to/from your clients).

As far as merging the data (i.e. multiple clients updating the same piece(s) of information), ModeShape relies entirely on Infinispan and its MVCC support (Locking and Concurrency - Infinispan 5.1 - Project Documentation Editor), so unless you have some special requirements here, this will work out-of-the-box based on how you configure Infinispan.

Clustering/non-clustering is purely a server configuration concern which should be driven by the scalability/availabilty/etc requirements. It has no relevance for the client-part of the problem. You can look at the various topologies here Clustering - ModeShape 3 - Project Documentation Editor or in the Infinispan documentation.

[amischler]

Thanks for your answer. You helped me saving time, not trying to configure vainly ModeShape clustering options to solve a problem that it is not intended for.

Best regards.