[Wonder-disc] In-line bindings : with and without WOOgnl

[EMail A. <ar...@ga...>]

This is long and complicated .. if I reach a resolution, I promise
I'll put a full description into the Wiki for others.  I don't want to
appear lazy; I know I can read the code for some of this, but it's
really arcane and an explanation from someone already deeply familiar
with it would be better .. many thanks, Gavin

_________________________________________________________ WITHOUT WOOGNL

I was introduced to Apple's version of inline bindings before I found
WOOgnl, and have been using them for several years -- the WOOgnl
framework has not been part of my apps and, just to be sure,
"ognl.active=false" in Properties.

I have a component with the following HTML:

    <wo:textField value="[username]" size="20" />

        which has been behaving itself for years!

Believing it to be a more popular syntax, and that Apple's mechanism
dealt with both, I recently switched such elements to the "$..." form
(corresponding to the conventional WOOgln syntax):

    <wo:textField value="$username" size="20" />

and I get the error:

    <er.extensions.components._private.ERXWOTextField> 'value'
attribute not present or is a constant

So far, I've not brought WOOgnl into play --
___________________

Am I wrong believing that Apple's inline binding syntax will be
triggered by either "[...]" or "$..."  ?
   I deduce that I am because ERXWOTextField appears to see "$..." as
a literal constant string.
___________________

Is Apple's inline binding described/documented anywhere at all ?
   I have hunted high and low (but maybe it is in the middle somewhere!)
___________________

Am I correct in my conclusion that the prefix/suffix setting in the
"WOLIPS Development" pane of my project properties has no relationship
to the "Apple" in-line binding mechanism ?
   I deduce I am because changing it has no effect on the above error.
___________________

Am I correct in my belief that Apple's inline binding mechanism is
invoked only by having an empty (or absent) *.wod file for the
component in question -- no flags, switches, properties, etc ?
   I believe I am because (a) a WebObjects engineer told me that a few
years ago, and (b) that seems to be how it works.

_________________________________________________________ WITH WOOGNL

NOW: Add the WOOgln framework and "ognl.active=true" &
"ognl.inlineBindings=true" and this happens:

Prefix/Suffix : "$" and "" --- <wo:textField value="$username"
size="20" /> -- success, as expected
Prefix/Suffix : "[" and "]" --- <wo:textField value="$username"
size="20" /> -- success [1]

Prefix/Suffix : "$" and "" --- <wo:textField value="[username]"
size="20" /> -- failure, as expected [2]
Prefix/Suffix : "[" and "]" --- <wo:textField value="[username]"
size="20" /> -- failure [3]

Success [1] and Failure [3] above are not what I expected, unless
WOOgnl ignores the Prefix/Suffix setting.

With WOOgnl active, is the Apple mechanism defeated ?
   Failures [2] and [3] would imply Apple's mechanism is defeated
otherwise it would have caught the "[...]" usage when WOOgnl didn't.

Am I correct in my belief that WOOgnl's inline binding mechanism is
invoked only by "ognl.active=true" & "ognl.inlineBindings=true" ?