Hi Robert,
It's a good question. I'll try to explain by an example:
If you have a method signature for an indexed property like this:
String getName(int nameIndex);
you can use
BeanUtils.getProperty(theObject, "name[1]");
But if the method signature looks like this;
String[] getName();
you are not able to query the structure anymore by means of the existing
getNestedPropery method(s).
The ObjectUtils continues to query the resulting object as long as there are
more dot-separated tokens left in the key, regardless of the object type
returned (it can be a standard bean, a List, an Array, a Map, or even a
Collection of String objects).
Another thing is that the query language of ObjectUtils is more abstract
than the existing BeanUtils queries, using [] and () and ".". Given two
method signatures;
/**
* A mapped property.
*/
String getPhone(String phoneType);
/**
* A getter for a Map that maps the phoneType to the phoneNumber,
* here represented by a String
*/
Map getPhone();
/**
* A getter method for a Phone object (see below).
*/
Phone getPhone();
/**
* The Phone class signature goes like this...
*/
public class Phone {
public String getWork();
public String getHome();
}
...queries like "phone.work" and "phone.home" would be the same for all the
three examples above, whilst the existing BeanUtils queries would
distinguish between pure properties (separated by dots) and mapped/indexed
properties, having () and [] in addition.
I realize that by submitting this code I am introducing a number of separate
issues related to the existing BeanUtils package;
1) Should the BeanUtils project stick to the existing delimiters (using
(), [] and dots) or be extended to support pure
dotted queries as well?
2) Should the BeanUtils support nested queries in all data structures,
not only BEAN properties, like the code I submitted
does?
3) Should classes like ObjectUtils be adopted without supporting the
DynaBean and DynaClass stuff?
4) Should the BeanUtils package be extended with ObjectUtils without set
(write) support? For the time being the class only has
getter methods ("read-only").
It would be interesting to hear the thoughts of the committers in the
project related to these questions.
Cheers,
Rune
-----Original Message-----
From: robert burrell donkin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 27 March 2003 20:13
To: Jakarta Commons Developers List
Subject: Re: [BeanUtils] - Extensions for dotted queries...
hi Rune
(maybe i'm a little confused but...)
could you explain to me the differences between you code and the existing
support for nested property access?
- robert
On Thursday, March 20, 2003, at 03:00 PM, Rune Toalango Johannesen wrote:
> Due to problems getting the previous email with some code through
> paranoid firewalls I try again here... ;)
>
> The original email:
>
> [BeanUtils] - Extensions for dotted queries in composite data
> structures
>
> Guys,
>
> Attached you find some classes that extends the functionality of the
> existing BeanUtils package;
>
> ObjectUtils
>
> and
>
> NestedObjectUtils
>
> The purpose of this extension is to allow bean property queries not
> only
> on pure beans, but in composite data structures that might involve maps,
> lists, arrays and collections in addition to the traditional beans.
>
> The ObjectUtils lets you resolve dotted queries like this;
>
> String text = (String) ObjectUtils.get(namespace,
> "session.products.0.children.2.displayText");
>
> as opposed to
>
> String text = (String) ((List) ((Catalog)
> namespace.get("session" )).getProducts()).get(0)............
>
> The NestedObjectUtils lets you do the same, but allows nested queries
> like;
>
>
> "session.products.0.children.{request.parameter.childNumber}.displayTe
> xt"
>
> The NestedObjectUtils depends on the Commons-Lang
> (org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils) in addition to the existing
> BeanUtils dependencies.
>
> I've javadoc'ed the code and provided some unit tests... Let me know
> what
> you think - should this be included in the BeanUtils package in some
> future release? What about extending it to support the DynaBean concept?
> What about extending the query language in the BeanUtils package in
> general to support both traditional () and [] delimiters in addition to
> the uniformed dot - as it is used in these classes?
>
>
>
> <<beanutils-extension.zip>>
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rune
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