Tridion Broker Database API for .net, need a quick start

Question

I am querying Broker database to get some metadata information. I am using Entity framework to communicate the database which is not recommended for broker database queries, I want to replace this functionality with "Broker Database API".

• Where can I find broker database API?
• Is there some set of dlls I need to import into my project?
• How will it interact with broker database? I need a connection string?

I found following article on how to get information from broker database but does not explain where the dlls are? does not say where is connection string. I have Tridion.ContentDelivery.dll in my application's bin folder, Is that Broker database API?

Answer 1

There are examples of using the content delivery API in both Java and ASP.Net in the official documentation here [Login required]

The dlls required are in the install media under the Content Delivery > Roles > API section. You will also need to add the relevant configuration files, with correct data populated.

The "connection string" for the API is contained within a configuration file called cd_storage.conf like below. This file also controls other aspects like caching etc..

    <Storage Type="persistence" Id="sqlserver" dialect="MSSQL" Class="com.tridion.storage.persistence.JPADAOFactory">
            <Pool Type="jdbc" Size="5" MonitorInterval="60" IdleTimeout="120" CheckoutTimeout="120" />
            <DataSource Class="com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDataSource">
              <Property Name="serverName" Value="localhost" />
              <Property Name="portNumber" Value="1433" />
              <Property Name="databaseName" Value="Tridion_Broker" />
              <Property Name="user" Value="TridionBrokerUser" />
              <Property Name="password" Value="tridion" />
            </DataSource>
    </Storage>

All the information you need should be in the official documentation, community blogs and other Stack Exchange questions.

Answer 2

I agree with the other answers about reading the docs a bit to understand how to set things up and get into the API. If a simple code example is what you are after, you could do worse than check out the Sdl.Web.Tridion.Query.BrokerQuery.cs class, part of the open source SDL Tridion Reference Implementation. This shows how you can query the broker for content from a particular schema and/or publication with options for filtering by keyword(s), sorting and paging results.

Answer 3

The necessary DLLs and JARs are available with the Tridion Content Delivery install package. You need to obtain this from your Tridion administrator or account manager in your company. They would have gotten the files when they signed the Tridion license agreement. So reach out to your manager regarding who that person is.

Once you have the files, the installation steps are available on SDL Tridion Documentation Portal (http://sdllivecontent.sdl.com/).

Answer 4

In addition to the information given by Chris and Nickoli above, I would also suggest that you download the Content Delivery ASP.NET API documentation.

This is available as a .chm file from the SDL Tridion World website (login required), and will give you details of the whole of the API.

NOTE: For users of SDL Tridion 2013 SP1, this is available in API reference documentation downloads section of the SDL LiveContent documentation (login required), rather than SDL Tridion World.