[Openoss-devel] tipEntityGetMultiple stereotype not generating correct response iterator element and other comments

[Craig G. (opennms) <cg...@op...>]

Hi Xose, Marc

Once again I'm afraid I've come up with a new bug in the xml generated 
by the soap generator and some other questions. I have found this while 
trying to get the PM model implementation to generate correctly.

1.Problem:  tipEntityGetMultiple stereotype not generating correct 
iterator response element

In pm_cbe_perf_mon_coll_adhoccollectionservice_msg.xsd we can see two 
examples of generated iterators;

a)    getTrackingRecords is an explicit method declared in the 
AdhocCollectionService with stereotype settings 'isBulkPotential' and 
'bulk transfer pattern = ITERATOR'.
In the this case the response object getTrackingRecordsResponse 
correctly extends iterator:CommonResponse
    <xsd:complexType name="getTrackingRecordsResponse">
       <xsd:complexContent>
          <xsd:extension base="iterator:CommonResponse">
             <xsd:sequence>
                <xsd:element name="trackingRecords" 
type="problem:TrackingRecordResultWithIterator" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1">
... etc

b)     getAdhocCollections is generated using the tipEntityGetMultiple 
stereotype on the AdhocCollection entity
in this case the response object getAdhocCollectionsResponse incorrectly 
does not extend iterator:CommonResponse
    <xsd:complexType name="getAdhocCollectionsResponse">
       <xsd:sequence>
          <xsd:element name="AdhocCollections" 
type="tns:AdhocCollectionResultWithIterator" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1">
  ... etc

This is a bug and needs fixed quickly for the PM interface to work. We 
need to change the soap generator to ensure that all iterator responses 
extend from iterator:CommonResponse whether explicitly declared in a 
method stereotype or declared through the tipEntityGetMultiple 
stereotype. i.e.;
    <xsd:complexType name="getAdhocCollectionsResponse">
       <xsd:complexContent>
          <xsd:extension base="iterator:CommonResponse">
               <xsd:sequence>
                    <xsd:element name="AdhocCollections" 
type="tns:AdhocCollectionResultWithIterator" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1">
  ... etc

____________

2. Question / feature request - needs consideration by the team
The filtering mechanism seems overly complex and very different between 
the use of primitive.filter and tipEntityGetMultiple
This is a plea to think through whether we could simplify the template 
filtering mechanism to support any type of entity rather than having it 
type specific. The comments below are observations and will need a bit 
more thinking through but I think they align with what is needed for the 
inventory interface.

In the TIP Profile the primitive.filter has the following documentation; 
'Primitive filter datatype corresponding to a choice of template or 
query filter'. This is not what we generate.

The generated XML for attribute filter type primitive.filter in the 
ResourceAlarmRetreivalService ( RAM Model)  is
<xsd:element name="filter" type="filter:XPathQueryFilter" minOccurs="0" 
maxOccurs="1">

In other word there is no choice of template or query filter. 
primitive.filter only uses xpath

In the getAdhocCollections request generated from the 
tipEntityGetMultiple stereotype we generate
attribute filter of type   AdhocCollectionFilterChoice

<xsd:complexType name="getAdhocCollectionsRequest">
       <xsd:complexContent>
          <xsd:extension base="iterator:CommonRequest">
             <xsd:sequence>
                <xsd:element name="filter" 
type="tns:AdhocCollectionFilterChoice" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1">
... etc

    <xsd:complexType name="AdhocCollectionFilterChoice">
       <xsd:choice>
          <xsd:element name="templateFilter" 
type="tns:AdhocCollectionTemplateFilter" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
          <xsd:element name="queryFilter" type="filter:XPathQueryFilter" 
minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
       </xsd:choice>
    </xsd:complexType>

    <xsd:complexType name="AdhocCollectionTemplateFilter">
       <xsd:complexContent>
          <xsd:extension base="filter:TemplateFilter">
             <xsd:sequence>
                <xsd:element name="templates" 
type="tns:ArrayOfAdhocCollectionTemplate" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
             </xsd:sequence>
          </xsd:extension>
       </xsd:complexContent>

In other word we have a choice of AdhocCollectionTemplateFilter or the 
XPathQueryFilter which we could get from primitive.filter above 
(although the signature is very different). This is overly complex and 
inconsistent. We clearly need primitive.filter to generated the same 
sort of selection mechanisms as tipEntityGetMultiple but the 
primitive.filter template filter needs to be generic to any entity type 
rather than specific to a particular entity as in 
AdhocCollectionTemplateFilter

Would it be possible for both primitive.filter and tipEntityGetMultiple 
to generate something like;

    <xsd:complexType name="FilterChoice">
       <xsd:choice>
          <xsd:element name="templateFilter" type="tns:TemplateFilter" 
minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
          <xsd:element name="queryFilter" type="filter:XPathQueryFilter" 
minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
       </xsd:choice>
    </xsd:complexType>

    <xsd:complexType name="TemplateFilter">
       <xsd:complexContent>
             <xsd:sequence>
                <xsd:element name="templates" type="tns:ArrayOfTemplate" 
minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
             </xsd:sequence>
       </xsd:complexContent>

where all Entity Template types then extend Template?

What do you think?

Craig