Re: [xwiki-devs] [proposal] Make EntityReferences easier to create.

Thomas Mortagne wrote: > On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 11:42, Caleb James DeLisle > &lt;calebdelisle(a)lavabit.com&gt; wrote: >> I believe that in order for a new api to be accepted by the community, it must be more useful and/or easier to use >> than the api which it replaces. >> >> The old way of getting a document was this: >> $xwiki.getDocument("xwiki:Main.WebHome") >> >> The current way to get a document is this: >> $xwiki.getDocument($services.model.createDocumentReference($context.wiki, $space, "WebHome")) >> >> I am quite sure that the user community will choose the former even if it has escaping issues. >> >> Lest one think we can bully the community into choosing the latter by deprecation or removal of methods, recall >> the dismal sales of Windows Vista even with the control afforded by the proprietary license and the awesome power >> Microsoft wields over the market. The user is the boss, their word is law. >> >> My first proposal is that we move to an easier way to handle document names. >> >> >> >> My second proposal is a possible way to do it. >> I would like velocity and groovy script authors to be able to give a command like this: >> xwiki.getDocument(["Main", "WebHome"]); >> or in velocity >> $xwiki.getDocument(["Main", "WebHome"]) >> >> To make that possible I am proposing we change the reference model as follows: >> EntityReference extends List<String> >> Each reference has a name which is expressed as a string, it also has a reference to the next node and the last >> node. This is a classic example of a LinkedList. The point is that any List<String> is a valid (although reletive) >> reference. When a relative reference is passed, it is replaced with a complete reference which is completed using >> the document in the context. >> >> As you prepare your -1's please recognize that the community will never go for the current model and almost >> anything is better than a rift between the community and the development team. If there are any other ideas of >> how to make it that easy, I would be glad to hear them. > I don't see why making public script API to get a document easier > imply to change EntityReferences. You can always have this > xwiki.getDocument(["Main", "WebHome"]); without touching > EntityReferences design, you just create a reference from this list in > the getDocument implementation. Then we will have getDocument(Reference) getDocument(String) getDocument(List) not to mention rename, copyDocument etc. If we must add new methods because we can't make references easy to create then I think sooner or later we are going to have to change direction.

> Problem with your proposal is that it will introduce several > limitations since you have only strings: You have no idea what is > what in this String list you can only rely on the index of the string > in the list. > - the current EntityReferences is that way because we wanted to make > possible to have a reference with just the wiki and the page and give > it to a resolver to get a full reference > - how do you support multiple spaces since you can't know which of > theses strings are spaces ? The algorithm would work like this. If the current document is: xwiki:one.two.three.space.doc and you reference ["xwiki", "Main", "WebHome"] it would count back 3 from the current document location and you would get xwiki:one.two.xwiki.Main.WebHome To make an explicit reference you could pass an entity which is illegal such as: [0, "xwiki", "Main", "WebHome"] or [$xwiki, "xwiki", "Main", "WebHome"] Since nested spaces are not implemented I don't see why we need to worry too much about how easy it is to work around them as long as we know it won't be impossible to implement when the time comes.

>> Caleb >> >> _______________________________________________ >> devs mailing list >> devs(a)xwiki.org >> http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs >> > _______________________________________________ devs mailing list devs(a)xwiki.org http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs