Re: [morph-developer] SimpleLanguageBeanReflector

[Matt S. <Mat...@wh...>]

Wow, that looks fantastic!  Morph has the ability to do very complex 
mappings between different types of objects, but it is a pain in the 
neck to set up.  This looks like it would be very friendly towards 
people new to Morph and to former Dozer users in particular.

I've also thought that perhaps it would be possible to setup some type 
of Morph XML Schema that would plug seamlessly into Spring, but as you 
mentioned, XML is rather clunky.

Matt S

Matt Benson wrote:
> --- Matt Sgarlata
> <Mat...@wh...> wrote:
>
>   
>> Cool idea!  Where are you headed with this?
>>     
>
> If I tell you, I'm deprived of my curtain-pulling
> ta-da moment... But since you're asking, I'll tell
> you:
>
> Dozer is the other OSS object-conversion framework
> that anyone knows about that has enough meat to be
> viable for real work.  A lot of people probably
> wouldn't switch from Dozer to Morph if they perceived
> themselves as losing anything in the way of
> functionality.  Dozer's primary configuration
> interface is an XML resource.  Morph on the other hand
> must be configured entirely programmatically or
> Spring-wired.  What I have been working on these past
> couple of weeks is a means of mapping properties using
> a configuration format specific to Morph.  Wow, you
> say sarcastically...  But there's more!  :)  I can
> already build simple configuration-file driven copiers
> composed of PropertyNameMapping/MatchingCopiers, so my
> next step was, in true me-too fashion, to be able to
> map complex properties (Dozer does this).  I -believe-
> the only thing I needed here was to implement a
> reflector capable of interpreting complex properties
> (done), and set that as the reflector on my generated
> PropertyNameMappingCopiers, but I haven't done this
> yet.
>
> Is that all?  Of course not!  What's cool about simply
> duplicating someone else's functionality?  Only if you
> can one-up them in some way do you come out ahead. 
>   
>> :)  Example:  ever since I began working with Dozer,
>>     
> they provided a unidirectional mapping feature. 
> However, the one direction was only from "class A" to
> "class B"--a limitation (the Dozer team recognizes it
> as such).  This was tedious to define in their XML
> format so they still, as far as I know, haven't done
> it.  XML is clunky anyway.  So what I am working on is
> a custom (ANTLR-implemented) DSL for Morph property
> mapping.
>
> Example 1:  basic mapping
>
> net.sf.morph.transform.copiers.dsl.test.A :
> net.sf.morph.transform.copiers.dsl.test.B {
> 	*,
> 	stringA : stringB,
> 	intA : intB,
> 	objectA : objectB
> }
>
> The above signifies a bidirectional mapping
> association between two classes.  The asterisk
> signifies that matching property names will be copied,
> and that the three paired mappings will be made.
>
> Example 2: mapping some fields leftward only (Dozer
> can only do rightward)
>
> net.sf.morph.transform.copiers.dsl.test.A :
> net.sf.morph.transform.copiers.dsl.test.B {
> 	*,
> 	stringA<=stringB,
> 	intA<=intB,
> 	objectA<=objectB
> }
>
> As above, the matching properties will be mapped.  The
> explicitly defined properties only go from class B to
> class A.  To specify all mapping to be leftward only,
> the class association can be defined with <= .  As you
> would expect, => indicates rightward mappings.
>
> There are other little things but that's the jist of
> it, anyway.  I'm hoping this will ease the transition
> of hypothetical users from Dozer to Morph.  ;)
>
>   
>> One thing I worry about is that we may be
>> introducing circular 
>> dependencies.  Languages depend on converters which
>> in turn depend on 
>> reflectors.  If we make a reflector that is
>> dependent on a language I 
>> wonder if that could get us into trouble.
>>     
>
> I hear you, but composition is such an integral part
> of Morph's architecture that I just don't see a lot of
> danger here.  As you can see, my intent is to make it
> even deeper!  I want to make a delegatingCopier that
> depends on propertyCopiers that depend on reflectors
> that depend on languages that depend on reflectors...
> I think that's right.  :)  Ultimately I think that
> yes, if you misconfigure Morph it will fail
> spectacularly.  That seems to me more likely than for
> it to misbehave subtly.  Anyway, I am doing my
> DSLDefinedCopier in the sandbox, so hopefully I'll
> have something to check in later this week for your
> perusal.  Incidentally, if you have a better name than
> DSLDefinedCopier, I'm all ears.  :)
>
> -Matt B
>   
>> Matt S
>>
>> Matt Benson wrote:
>>     
>>> I've just implemented a reflector over
>>>       
>> SimpleLanguage,
>>     
>>> which is of course itself implemented over the
>>>       
>> basic
>>     
>>> reflectors.  Trust me, this is going somewhere...
>>>
>>> Incidentally, the tests for
>>> SimpleLanguageBeanReflector implement the
>>>       
>> long-overdue
>>     
>>> testing of SimpleLanguage.set().  :)
>>>
>>> more later,
>>> Matt (B)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>       
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