What Java CMIS client library should I use?

Question

I am starting a new project and must decide which CMIS client library we will use.
Our Java project just needs to connect an a CMIS server (actually Alfresco but it should not matter), in order to perform some read/write/search operations.

I am looking for a client library that:

• is already usable
• is not going to be abandoned soon
• has an active community of users
• is open source

Which one would you recommend and why?

Here are a few possibilities:

• Apache Chemistry's OpenCMIS (winner by now)
• xCMIS
• chemistry-atompub-client (abandoned)
• chemistry-abdera (not very active)
• Abdera (difficult)
• Use the AtomPub or Web Service directly (difficult)

Answer 1

I recommend OpenCMIS. (Well, I have to since I'm involved in the project.) It's an active project supported by a broad community. OpenCMIS supports both bindings, AtomPub and Web Services, and has been tested against a number of repositories.

chemistry-atompub-client has been abandoned and chemistry-abdera is not very active. You can, of course, handle the AtomPub binding directly, but that's a lot of work.

Answer 2

You may also use an Alfresco-specific OpenCMIS extension for the sake of simplicity.

http://code.google.com/a/apache-extras.org/p/alfresco-opencmis-extension/