Mini-Language Guide

Introduction

he Mini-Language concept in Open For Business is similar to the Gang of Four Interpreter pattern, or the Mark Grand Little Language pattern. This is also the central theme of the Building Parsers with Java book by Steven John Metsker which the OFBiz Rule Engine is based on. The idea is to create simple languages that simplify complex or frequently performed tasks.

In business software there are things that are done hundreds or thousands of times in a single application that a Mini-Language can simplify to the point of cutting implementation and maintenance times not by just 50%, but often as much as 70-90%. Yes, certain tasks will take only 10% of the effort and knowledge to perform. This makes it easier people not familiar with the software to manipulate existing or build new functionality.

Mini-Languages tend to have instructions that are more like method calls in a general purpose language. They are meant to solve a specific problem in a specific context, and are generally worthless or need to be modified for other contexts or problems.

Often this idea is implemented using a free form (BNF) or english-like syntax. In Open For Business the Mini-Languages are expressed as XML files to simplify the learning and manipulation of the syntax, in addition to making the Mini-Languages easier to write and extend.

The DTD for the simple-map-processor and simple-method XML files is in the distribution in ofbiz/core/docs/xmldefs/ofbiz/simple-methods.dtd or on the website at ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/simple-methods.dtd. These are combined into a single DTD to make it easy to use inlined simple-map-processors inside a simple-method.

To specify the DOCTYPE for a simple-map-processors XML file use the following:

<!DOCTYPE simple-map-processors PUBLIC "-//OFBiz//DTD Simple Methods//EN" "http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/simple-methods.dtd">

To specify the DOCTYPE for a simple-methods XML file use the following:

<!DOCTYPE simple-methods PUBLIC "-//OFBiz//DTD Simple Methods//EN" "http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/simple-methods.dtd">

The only difference between the two DOCTYPE definitions is the root node to use from the DTD.

The Simple Map Processor Mini-Language

• Simple Map Processor Overview
• Make In String Operations
• Process Field Operations
• Simple Map Processors Example

Simple Map Processor Overview

The Simple Map Processor Mini-Language performes two primary tasks: validation and conversion. It does this in a context of moving values from one Map to another. The input map will commonly contain Strings, but can contain other object types like Integer, Long, Float, Double, java.sql.Date, Time, and Timestamp.

NOTE: The reference information for the simple-map-processor has been moved to annotations in the simple-methods.xsd file.

Simple Map Processors Example

<!DOCTYPE simple-map-processors PUBLIC "-//OFBiz//DTD Simple Methods//EN" "http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/simple-methods.dtd">

<simple-map-processors>
 <simple-map-processor name="update">
 <make-in-string field="estimatedStartDate">
 <in-field field="estimatedStartYear"><constant>-</constant>
 <in-field field="estimatedStartMonth"><constant>-</constant>
 <in-field field="estimatedStartDay"><constant>T</constant>
 <in-field field="estimatedStartHour"><constant>:</constant>
 <in-field field="estimatedStartMinute"><constant>:</constant>
 <in-field field="estimatedStartSecond">
 </make-in-string>
 <process field="workEffortId"><copy replace="false"/></process>
 <process field="scopeEnumId"><copy/></process>
 <process field="currentStatusId"><copy/><not-empty><fail-message message="Status is missing."/></not-empty></process>
 <process field="priority"><convert type="Long"><fail-message message="Priority is not a valid whole number."/></convert></process>
 <process field="estimatedStartDate">
 <compare-field operator="less" field="estimatedCompletionDate" type="Timestamp" format="yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss">
 <fail-message message="Estimated Start date/time must be BEFORE End date/time."/></compare-field>
 <convert type="Timestamp" format="yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss">
 <fail-message message="Estimated Start Date is not a valid Date-Time."/></convert></process>
 <process field="estimatedCompletionDate">
 <convert type="Timestamp"><fail-message message="Estimated Completion Date is not a valid Date-Time."/></convert></process>
 <process field="estimatedMilliSeconds">
 <convert type="Double"><fail-message message="Estimated Milli-seconds is not a valid number."/></convert></process>
 </simple-map-processor>
 <simple-map-processor name="delete">
 <process field="workEffortId"><copy/><not-empty><fail-message message="Work Effort ID is missing."/></not-empty></process>
 </simple-map-processor>
</simple-map-processors>

The Simple Method Mini-Language

• Simple Method Overview
• Special Context Access Syntax
• Call Operations
• Java Call Operations
• Control and Error Handling Operations
• Event Specific Operations
• Service Specific Operations
• Method Environment Operations
• Entity Engine Misc. Operations
• Entity Engine Find Operations
• Entity Engine Value Operations
• Entity Engine List Operations
• Entity Engine Transaction Operations
• Conditional (If) Operations
• Other Operations
• Simple Methods Example

Simple Method Overview

The Simple Method Mini-Language is a simple way to implement an event that is invoked by the Control Servlet or a service that is invoked by the Service Engine. A Simple Method can be invoked through the static methods on the SimpleMethod class, or as an event through an entry in the controller configuration XML file like the following:

 <event type="simple" path="org/ofbiz/commonapp/workeffort/workeffort/WorkEffortSimpleEvents.xml" invoke="update"/>

or as a service through an entry in a services.xml file like the following:

 <service name="createPartyRole" engine="simple"
 location="org/ofbiz/commonapp/party/party/PartyRoleServices.xml" invoke="createPartyRole" auth="true">
 <description>Create a Party Role (add a Role to a Party)</description>
 <attribute name="partyId" type="String" mode="IN" optional="true"/>
 <attribute name="roleTypeId" type="String" mode="IN" optional="false"/>
 </service>

The path or location for a Simple Method is the classpath and filename of the XML file.

In this Mini-Language you can invoke Simple Map Processors, Services and bsh scripts, perform entity related operations, and create messages to return to the caller. Specific operations can be enclosed in if blocks to execute conditionally and values or fields can be copied around in the maps, lists and method environment.

There are a number of tags which can be used to get and set attributes to/from a request or session object when called as an event or to set attributes in the result when called as a service. These operations are only applied when applicable. In other words if you include a env-to-request operation it will only be invoked when the simple-method is called as an event and a env-to-result operation will only be invoked when the simple-method is called as a service. Everything else is the same when called as an event or a service which makes it easy to write flexible logic that can be mounted/applied in various ways.

There are a number of objects that exist in the method environment when a simple-method starts or that are used as it executes to keep track of certain information. Some will exist when called as an event or a service, these are marked in the following list. Each name can be overridden using an attribute on the simple-method tag. The defaults are listed below (you can also find them in the DTD).

Here is a complete list of the attributes of the simple-method tag:

Special Context Access Syntax

In strings and field names a special syntax is supported to flexibly access Map member, List elements and to insert environment values into string constants.

The ${} (dollar-sign-curly-brace) syntax can be used to insert an environment variable value in pretty much any string constant in a simple-method file. Not only can it be used to reference top-level envrionment variables, the syntax elements described below can be used to access values in sub-structures.

You can use the "." (dot) syntax to access Map members. For example if you specify the attribute field-name="product.productName" it will reference the productName member of the product Map. This would be the same as specifying map-name="product" field-name="productName". Note that this is, of course, more flexible than a field-name/map-name combination because the Map structure can be multiple levels deep. For example if you have use the attribute field-name="products.widget.productName" it will reference the productName in the widget Map which is in the products Map.

The "[]" (square-brace) syntax can be used to access list elements. For example you can specify the attribute field-name="products[0].productName" and it will reference the productName of the first (position zero) element in the products List. To make this more useful you can pull a list index from the environment using something like field-name="products[${currentIndex}].productName".

There are two extensions to the [] syntax that can be used when refering to an environment location that is the target of an operation. If you do not include a number between the square braces the value will be put at the end of the list. If you put a "+" (plus sign) in front of the number between the square braces (ie: [+2]) it will insert the value before that position in the list instead of replacing the value at that location. For example, specifying [+0] would insert the value at the beginning of the list.

In fact, you can use the ${} syntax to substitute any string or other value at any location in a field-name or other string constant. So, you could even reference a Map member named in some other environment variable. For example you could use field-name="products[${currentIndex}].${currentMember}" to achieve this effect.

Okay, enough of the general stuff, here is a catalog and description of the available operations.