Re: [xwiki-devs] [Proposal] Use JSON in Wiki Components

Hi devs. In XWiki, we have the ability to create wiki components. It means that each extension can define a custom XClass which is used to create a component when a corresponding XObject exists. Sometimes, this XObject contains a textarea where the developer could write velocity code. The velocity code is rendered, and the result is parsed in order to complete other actions. For example, velocity can render a boolean, or a list of documents, etc... The reason why Velocity is used is because it does not require programming rights. On the other-side, it can only return a string: the rendered content.

My use-case is to generate a specific list of users when an event is triggered, to perform some actions with these users. Currently, we have no recommended practice about this "velocity-rendered-fields". That's what I propose to always use JSON when velocity is used to render data in a wiki component. The reason is that JSON is standard and easy to parse. Use case: In the Event Stream module [1], the XClass "XWiki.EventStream.Code.EventClass" is used to trigger custom events when some event occurs. Example: if a DocumentUpdatedEvent is triggered and that event contains an XObject of type "Meeting", you can send a new "Meeting Created" event. There is a "Validation Expression" field used to determine either or not the custom event should be sent. Now I need to add an other field to determine which user should receive the event notifications. For example: if userA and userB have been invited to MeetingC, I need to send an event "Meeting Created" only for user A and user B. Here is my +1, Thanks, [1] http://extensions.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Extension/Event%20Stream%20Modul… -- Guillaume Delhumeau (guillaume.delhumeau(a)xwiki.com) Research & Development Engineer at XWiki SAS Committer on the XWiki.org project