ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>> in datatype any

[glaenen]

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 change the submitted property to ArrayList<Object> and thus putting all the elements of the second level Arraylist into separate elements of the highest level arraylist. (I hope my explanation is a bit clear 🙂 )

This causes problems when adding extra entry's later on because when the initial submit contained only
one entry the property returned by the nodeservice is an ArrayList<Object> and otherwise it an ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>>.
I've a work around by adding a header entry when first setting this property but I would prefer not having to put this header.

Is there an explanation why Alfresco is changing the type of a submitted object?

Thanks,

Glenn

[afaust]

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

[mrogers]

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.