topic Re: ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>> in datatype any in Alfresco Archive

ArrayList> in datatype any

glaenen — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:55:48 GMT

Hello,I'm trying to fill a datatype "any" property with an object of the type ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>>.This is working well but I have a strange behaviour when adding an ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>> with only 1 entry on the highest level,in this case alfresco seems to cha

Re: ArrayList> in datatype any

afaust — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:42:44 GMT

Hello,

I'd strongly advise against putting nested lists in properties - or even using the datatype "d:any" at all if not avoidable. Your data structure would probably best be served by using composite nodes, i.e. a main node with a list of children, each maintaining a multi-value, typed property of your actual elements. This way you have cleanly separated 2nd level lists that you can aggregate in your web scripts / code.

What I'd suppose happens here is that the automatic conversion logic of Alfresco when loading properties from the database flattens your collection.

Regards
Axel

Re: ArrayList> in datatype any

mrogers — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:53:24 GMT

Yes alfresco has slightly different processing for single and multi-valued properties. And in addition "unspecified" types can be stored by Java Serialization as a last resort. There may well be something not quite right in the mapping, but as the post above suggests its a situation best avoided.