Rendering associations in the repo-tier webscript

git-svn-id: https://svn.alfresco.com/repos/alfresco-enterprise/alfresco/HEAD/root@13733 c4b6b30b-aa2e-2d43-bbcb-ca4b014f7261

source/java/org/alfresco/repo/forms/script/ScriptFormData.java

@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 package org.alfresco.repo.forms.script;
 
 import java.io.Serializable;
+import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
 
 import org.alfresco.repo.forms.FormData;
@@ -86,9 +87,50 @@ public class ScriptFormData implements Serializable
         public Object getValue()
         {
             Object rawResult = wrappedFieldData.getValue();
+
+            // An implementation decision was taken in handling sequence values here.
+            //
+            // Background:
+            // (1) if this method returns instances of java.util.List as is, the data
+            // webscript that renders the REST JSON in the repo tier will render a
+            // List.toString() for these field values, which works - but see below.
+            //
+            // However the JavaScript API will then not offer sequences as sequences.
+            // Instead they will be Strings (e.g. field.value == "[foo, bar]")
+            // and JavaScript client code will have to parse these strings.
+            //
+            // (2) if this method instead returns listObject.toArray(), then the
+            // JavaScript API will see true sequence objects and can easily consume
+            // them like so field.value[1] == "bar"
+            //
+            // However with arrays returned from this method, the webscript that renders
+            // the REST JSON in the repo tier cannot handle the array type. (I should say
+            // that I am unable at this point to make it handle it.)
+            //
+            //
+            //
+            // So should we return List instances or Object[] instances?
+            // In order to allow the JSON to be easily rendered, and also to make it
+            // easier for client JavaScript code to use sequence values, we are
+            // returning our own toString implementation for List instances.
+            //
+            // So instead of "[foo, bar]" we'll have "foo,bar"
+            // This should be very easy for the JavaScript to parse: value.split(",")
+            // and it works for the webscript too.
+
             if (rawResult instanceof List)
             {
-                return ((List) rawResult).toArray();
+                List listValue = (List)rawResult;
+                StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
+                for (Iterator iter = listValue.iterator(); iter.hasNext(); )
+                {
+                    result.append(iter.next());
+                    if (iter.hasNext())
+                    {
+                        result.append(",");
+                    }
+                }
+                return result.toString();
             } else
             {
                 return rawResult;

source/java/org/alfresco/repo/forms/script/test_formService.js

@@ -16,12 +16,10 @@ function testGetFormForContentNode()
 	test.assertEquals(testDoc, form.item);
 	test.assertEquals('cm:content', form.type);
 	
-	//TODO Do we want this to be null or an empty array?
 	test.assertNull(form.fieldGroups, "form.fieldGroups should be null.");
 	
 	var fieldDefs = form.fieldDefinitions;
 	test.assertNotNull(fieldDefs, "field definitions should not be null.");
-	
 	test.assertEquals(22, fieldDefs.length);
 	
 	// This dataHash is now an integer-keyed hash of the field definition data objects.
@@ -49,10 +47,6 @@ function testGetFormForContentNode()
     test.assertNotNull(sentDateField, "Expecting to find the cm:sentdate field");
     test.assertNotNull(referencesField, "Expecting to find the cm:references field");
 
-    //TODO All these checked values will only work for the hard-coded node we're using.
-    //     The hard-coded node should be replaced with a temporary one created within
-    //     this test case.
-    
     // check the labels of all the fields
     test.assertEquals("Name", nameField.label);
     test.assertEquals("Title", titleField.label);
@@ -87,9 +81,6 @@ function testGetFormForContentNode()
     // Expecting cm:addressees to be multi-valued.
     test.assertTrue(addresseesField.repeating);
   
-    // TODO The below test is failing for some reason.
-//    test.assertNull(addresseesField.constraints, "addresseesField.constraints should be null.");
-    
     // check the details of the association field
     test.assertEquals("cm:content", referencesField.endpointType);
     
@@ -125,8 +116,9 @@ function testGetFormForContentNode()
     test.assertFalse(isNaN(Date.parse(sentDate)));
     
     var targets = fieldData["assoc:cm:references"].value;
-    test.assertEquals(1, targets.length);
-    test.assertEquals(testAssociatedDoc, targets[0]);
+    
+    test.assertNotNull(targets, "targets should not be null.");
+    test.assertEquals(testAssociatedDoc, targets);
 }
 
 function getFieldDefnFromMap(name, fieldDefnDataHash)