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README - Documentum Perl 5 Extension
------------------------------------

This is the Documentum client library extention to Perl.  I have used
Perl 5.005_03 build this extension, but I know it works on older versions;
at least back to 5.004. 

* IMPORTANT NOTE *
This module has changed in one significant way from 1.01:  dmAPIInit()
and dmAPIDeinit() are now called implicitly within the module.  As such
your client programs do not need to call this.  Especially careful
client code which may check the return status of these calls will
complain or fail, depending on what you're doing with the results.

This version has been built and tested with EDMS versions 3.1.5, 3.1.6, 98,
and 4i versions 4.0.2,and 4.1 but should work with older versions, as the 
API hasn't changed much in a long time.  The Makefile.PL will automatically
write make files for NT and Solaris.  If you're using a different platform
let us know what settings you use and we'll include them in the future.  
Note: regardless of your OS, the paths in the Makefile.PL file may need to 
be tweaked depending upon your particular setup.

To build this extension, unpack the distribution, and edit Makefile.PL
to point at your documentum client libraries.  Then do the typical
Perl module building stuff:

	perl Makefile.PL
	make
	make test
	make install

The test.pl script will prompt you for the information it needs,
connect to your docbase, generate a new document
(from the dm_document class) and link it into the /Temp cabinet
(its called "Perl Test".  You can destroy this document after the tests
have run, but this is an easy way to exercise all of the API functions.
If you're nervous about the test script doing evil things to your
production docbase, point it at a test docbase, or write your
own client code.  :-)

This interface works much better than the sick, hacked version of
Perl 5.001 that Documentum provides with the server.  This module
doesn't dump core when errors are encountered (like a non-existent
object attribute).


Documentum::Tools
-----------------
This is a set of helper functions that simplify a couple of common
tasks when writing a Documentum client application.

dm_Connect -
	Encapsulates the process of connecting to a docbase.

	Arguments:  docbase, username, and password are required.  Two
		extra args are optional, and your dm_check_password program
		(or equivalent) should be configured to do the right thing
		with them.  See the etc/dm_check_password.pl program included
		with this distribution for an example that uses Kerberos v4
		service tickets to authenticate to Documentum.

	Returns:  the session identifer on success.  Nothing on failure.

dm_LastError -
	Generic interface for evaluating the error log for the current
	session.

	Arguments: session identifier, error level, and number of entries
		to report, all optional.  Session id defaults to 'apisession'
		for handling connect() failures.  Error level defaults to 3, which
		is a good choice in most situations, and number of entries
		defaults to 'all'.

	Returns:  character string containing the error data, suitable for
		printing to the user.

dm_CreateObject -

    NOTE: The %ATTRS hash is no longer a HoL.  This is a change from v1.2

	Generic wrapper to create new instances of object types and optionally
	populate attributes.  Note: this function does NOT perform a 'save'.
	Repeating attributes are declared as a scalar with delimiters between
	repeating values.  See below.  The default delimiter is set at:
	$Db::Documentum::Tools::Delimiter

	Arguments: Documentum object type, required.  Hash of attributes for object,
	optional.  For example:

	    $delim = $Db::Documentum::Tools::Delimiter;
		%ATTRS = (object_name =>  'test_doc2',
               	  title       =>  'My Test Doc 2',
               	  authors     =>  'Scott 1'.$delim.'Scott 2',
              	  keywords    =>  'Scott'.$delim.'Test'.$delim.$DocVar.$delim.'2',
               	  r_version_label => 'TEST');

   		$doc_id = dm_CreateObject ("dm_document",%ATTRS);

	Returns: scalar containing the r_object_id of the new object.

dm_CreateType -
	Generic wrapper to create new object type in the docbase.

	Arguments: Object name and Documentum superclass name, required.  Hash
	of field definitions, optional.  For example:

		%field_defs = (cat_id    => 'char(16)',
			           loc       => 'char(64)',
                       editions  => 'char(6) REPEATING');

     		$api_stat = dm_CreateType ("my_document","dm_document",%field_defs);

	Returns: TRUE on success, FALSE on failure.

dm_CreatePath -
	Generic wrapper to create new folder heirarchies in Docbase.

	Arguments: Scalar contianing path name.  
	
	For example,
	$dir_id = dm_CreatePath ('/Temp/Testing/Unit-1');

	Returns: r_object_id of folder or undef.
	
dm_KrbConnect -
	Requires Krb4.pm from CPAN.  You'll want to comment out the
	'use Krb4'; statement in the header of the library if you
	don't plan on using this.

	Connects to Documentum and authenticates the user using a Kerberos
	v4 service ticket.  This is fairly tricky stuff.  The library does a
	bunch of Kerberos calls to obtain all of the necessary info to
	build the service ticket.  The ticket is then encoded, along with
	a nonce value used to prevent replay attacks, and sent to the
	server.  A compatible dm_check_password program should be installed
	on the server to decode and decrypt the session info.

	You need to be fairly Kerberos-savvy to make this work.  The code is
	fairly-well commented, but it does assume you have a working
	K4 KDC installed, and a service ticket entry in your server machine's
	srvtab.  I did my testing with the default rcmd.hostname@REALM ticket,
	but now use documentum.hostname@REALM (which is how this code is
	configured).  You'll need to configure the service in both the
	client library code as well as the dm_check_password.pl program if
	you want to change it.

	The big problem with this code is that there is no good way to
	map Kerberos problems to Documentum connect() error codes, and
	reporting reporting Kerberos messages back to the user is not
	possible given the interface between the authentication program
	and the user, which is simply the exit value of the program (0
	on success, something else on failure).  Thus this may be
	difficult to support if there are Kerberos problems.  The
	client code does capture basic problems, like the user's TGT
	having expired.

	Arguments: docbase name (required)
	Returns: The session identifier on success.  Nothing on failure.

dm_LocateServer -
	Locates the currently-active server for a particular docbase.

	This is only really necessary since to obtain a Kerberos
	service ticket, you must know the hostname of the machine you're
	connecting to.  The Docbroker hides this layer from the user
	by default, and this routine exposes it.  This only gets
	called by dm_KrbConnect() in my implementation.

	Arguments:  docbase name (required).
	Returns:  Hostname for docbase on success.  Nothing on failure.


etc/dm_check_password.pl
------------------------
	This Perl version of dm_check_password knows how to authenticate
	users in the following ways:

	1.  Local passwords in /etc/passwd (/etc/shadow, whatever).
	2.  Against a Kerberos KDC using the user's kerberos password.
	3.  Against a Kerberos KDC using the user's kerberos service ticket.

	It should be installed setuid root with appropriate permissions.  See
	the existing dm_check_password for the right settings.

	Method #2 should be deprecated, given the fact that there doesn't
	appear to be any session encryption between the documentum client
	and server during the authentication phase.  Exposing your
	kerberos password to the network is potentially hazardous to the
	health of your network, and certain to make your network administrator
	unhappy (or it should).

	Checking works like this:

	- If the user supplies the additional optional arguments to connect,
	  the first one is ignored, and the second one is assumed to be
	  the encrypted nonce for this session, as long as it is at least
	  8 characters long.  We ignore the first one since the server
	  doesn't appear to pass it properly.

	- If a nonce is found, method 3 is tried (Kerberos service ticket).

	- If a nonce is not found, the user is authenticated against the
	  local passwd file.  If the user has a local entry, but the password
	  does not match, the session is denied.

	- If the user does not have a local passwd entry, then they are
	  authenticated against the Kerberos KDC (a la krb_get_pw_in_tkt).
	  If the password doesn't match here, the session is denied.

	- If for some reason we don't exit before this point, the session
	  is denied (just in case).

	Error passing back to the user is pretty primitive.  Also I don't
	pay attention to any of the password-aging stuff.


etc/idql.pl
------------------------
	This Perl version of the Interactive DQL Editor is provided for your
	convenience and as an example of Db::Documentum programming power.
	

If you encounter problems with the module that appear to be confined
to the module (or can't tell), please let us know.  If you find this
module useful, let us know as well.

Brian W. Spolarich
UUNET Technologies
<[email protected]>

Scott Roth
Science Applications International Corp.
<[email protected]>