Re: Re: [Springframework-developer] Spring bean factory XML format

[<rod...@in...>]

JP suggested:

<bean class="MyClass" id="foos" singleton="false> 
<property name="foo">FOO</property> 
<property name="foo2" value="FOO2"/> 
<property name="foo3" refid="foo3"/> 
<property name="foo4"> 
   <data>FOO4.1</data> 
   <data value="FOO4.2"/> 
   <data refid="foo4.3"/> 
</property> 
</bean> 


The problem I see here is that there are 3 ways of defining 
literals:
- in the body of the property element (as before)
- in a value attribute. I don't think this is a good idea, as 
attributes can only hold simple strings without getting into 
nasty escaping.
- in a <data> element, which is necessary anyway for a 
collection.

Juergen makes a good point about mixed collections of 
references and string data (which of course would be 
converted to objects). Initially I thought this was unlikely, 
but I realised it has quite a few uses (with the AOP proxy 
factory, for example), and the <value> subelement I suggested 
handles it. (It's already implemented: see collections.xml in 
beanfactory.xml tests.)

The most consistent approach IMHO is:

<bean class="MyClass" id="foos" singleton="false> 
<property name="foo"><value>FOO</value></property> 

<property name="foo3">
  <ref refid="foo3"/> 
</property>
<property name="foo4"> 
   <value>FOO4.1</value> 
   <value>FOO4.2</value>
   <ref refid="foo4.3"/> 
</property> 
</bean> 

Always consistent: always at least one value or ref 
subelement of a property elt; <value> contains only text 
data; ref body must be empty.

Slightly more verbose, but probably easier to author with an 
XML editor (even the basic Eclipse XML editor I use most of 
the time).

I don't care whether it's called value or data, or anything 
else...any ideas?

Regards,
Rod