Introduction

In the following chapters, we will show how to use the API. But first, you need a very brief overview of the core elements of PHPCR. After reading this guide, you should browse through the API documentation to get an idea what operations you can do on each of those elements. See the conclusions for links if you want to have more background.

It is important to know about the following concepts:

  • Node, Property: An object model for data structured similar to XML. A node is like the xml element, the property like the xml attribute. Properties are acquired from their nodes or directly from the session by their path. Nodes are acquired from parent nodes or from the session by their path. Both are Item, sharing the methods of that base interface. Names can be namespaced as in xml, and additionally may contain whitespaces or other not xml-legal characters.

  • Session: The authenticated connection to one workspace in the repository. Repository and workspace are immutable inside the Session. The session is the main interface to interact with the actual data. Sessions are acquired from a repository

  • Repository: Linking to one storage location with possibly many workspaces. Repositories are created with the help of the repository factory.

  • RepositoryFactory: Create repository instances for your implementation with implementation specific parameters.

  • Workspace: Provides general operations on the workspace of the Session it is acquired from.

Note on Implementation PHPCR Support

PHPCR is a modular standard and has a built-in way to discover the capabilities of your implementation. Therefore implementations do not have to support all sections of the specification.

TODO: Add a section about capability testing to show how to write portable code.