[xwiki-devs] [proposal][discussion]Object properties references

Hi devs, Short story: 1/ add the CLASS, OBJECT, PROPERTY EntityTypes in the model +1 2/ serialization for referencing a property of an object a) wiki:Space.Page^className[objectNumber]#property b) wiki:Space.Page^className#objectNumber$property +0.75 for b) Long story: 1/ I would need to extend the EntityReference to be able to target a property in an object in a document. For this, I will need to add /** * Represents a Class Entity */ CLASS, /** * Represents an Object Entity. */ OBJECT, /** * Represents a Property Entity */ PROPERTY, in the EntityType. Although I would prefer an extensible framework that would allow to extend the possible entity types without changing an enum in the platform (for any API user to be able to define its own references), I think this is fairly extensible (these are key concepts in the xwiki model and I don't think they would be changed that soon, and their interpretation is flexible, they could be combined with any parent to generate either references to class definitions or instances). here's my +1 for this. 2/ I would also need a 'standard' string serialization for these. Now, there's also the option to do it in my own module (annotations) because only I need it ftm, but I prefer to have a platform wide approach. Opinions? There are 2 choices, with a potentially different combination of separators: a/ wiki:Space.Page^className[objectNumber]#property pros: it's a suggestive way to access objects by number ([] is the standard syntax for array indexed access and the objects are accessed by index), [] is supported by JCR so maybe we should support it too cons: [] is somewhat inconsistent with all other separators which are just one separator, to the left (right) of the entity, harder to implement the [] separators on the current framework b/ wiki:Space.Page^className#objectNumber$property pros: inline with the separator usage we already have (and easier to implement for this reason), could be easier refactored to contain an object name instead of the number cons: $ separator can collide with velocity syntax (can potentially cause trouble when used in velocity -- an alternative could be the pipe |), could be harder to drop the object number part of the reference to refer a property in a class (if wanted, in the future) I have no other argument between a) and b) but the implementation speed one, so I'd go for a b)-like approach, in the spirit of the current separators. WDYT? Thanks, Anca