Make content node primary parent of node

Question

I try to use the Alfresco NodeService to make a content node (QName cm:content) the primary parent of another content node. NodeService provides a method

public ChildAssociationRef moveNode(
        NodeRef nodeToMoveRef,
        NodeRef newParentRef,
        QName assocTypeQName,
        QName assocQName)
        throws InvalidNodeRefException;

Let's say the current primary parent of the node theNodeToMove is a folder and the primary parent assoc reference of the node in the folder is primaryAssocRef. Let theTargetContentNode be the target content node.

Calling the above message like this

nodeService.moveNode(theNodeToMove,
                     theTargetContentNode,
                     primaryAssocRef.getTypeQName(),
                     primaryAssocRef.getQName());

fails. Alfresco reporst an integrity violation:

The association source type is incorrect:
   Source Node: workspace://SpacesStore/27a97736-222c-4bac-8610-f15ce312b074 
   Association: Association[ class=ClassDef[name={http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}folder], name={http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}contains, target class={http://www.alfresco.org/model/system/1.0}base, source role=null, target role=null]
   Required Source Type: {http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}folder
   Actual Source Type: {http://www.alfresco.org/model/content/1.0}content

Is it even possible to make a content node the primary parent of an existing content node?

Answer 1

Yes and no. Yes because content node can have children, and no because you can't use the "contains" association.

Basically, when you create a "parent-child" relation, you need to state it's association type. You can have as many of these, for instance rm:rendition is one of these types.

The "main" association type used when you create a document under a folder is cm:contains, and is setup in a way that does not allow content nodes to have children. This is done through model definition, and looks something like this:

<type name="cm:folder">
     <title>Folder</title>
     <parent>cm:cmobject</parent>
     <archive>true</archive>
     <associations>
        <child-association name="cm:contains">
           <source>
              <mandatory>false</mandatory>
              <many>true</many>
           </source>
           <target>
              <class>sys:base</class>
              <mandatory>false</mandatory>
              <many>true</many>
           </target>
           <duplicate>false</duplicate>
           <propagateTimestamps>true</propagateTimestamps>
        </child-association>
     </associations>
</type>