In this chapter, we will examine the structure of OpenCms, looking at the mechanisms that drive the content management system. Where appropriate, I will include Java code samples; however, the majority of the material in this chapter should be useful even if you are not a Java coder. In this chapter, I will cover:
Resource types
Content definitions
The Virtual File System (VFS)
The class structure of OpenCms
By now, you are familiar with the built-in resource types in OpenCms: Page, Plain, Binary, Image, JSP, and XML template. These provide generic types that are often sufficient for running CMS applications. However, it is often desirable to have more specific definitions of content. In OpenCms, there are two ways of defining custom content formats.
The first is to extend the existing resource types to include your own definition. This integrates well with the existing user interface and back-end data structure, but it is limited to content...