Mini-Language Guide

Written By: David E. Jones, jonesde@ofbiz.org

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Simple Map Processor Mini-Language
  • Simple Map Processor Overview
  • Make In String Operations
  • Process Field Operations
  • Simple Map Processors Example
• 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

Introduction

The 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 XML schema (XSD) for the simple-map-processor and simple-method XML files is in the distribution in framework/minilang/dtd/simple-methods.xsd or on the website at [<span style="color: #ff0000"><strong>to be modified</strong></span> [www.ofbiz.org/dtds/simple-methods.xsd]]. These are combined into a single file to make it easy to use inlined simple-map-processors inside a simple-method.

To specify the XMLschema for a simple-methods or simple-map-processors XML file use the following:

xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="[to be modified www.ofbiz.org/dtds/simple-methods.xsd]">

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.

Simple Map Processors Example

<simple-map-processors xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
		xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="[to be modified www.ofbiz.org/dtds/simple-methods.xsd]">
	<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 an env-to-request operation it will only be invoked when the simple-method is called as an event and an 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 XSD. Each name can be overridden using an attribute on the simple-method tag. The defaults are listed below in the XSD.

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 productMap. 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 attributefield-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}].productName".

Okay, enough of the general stuff, you may find in the XSD file descriptions of the available operations. Here is simply a categorized list of them.

Call Operations

call-map-processor
call-service
call-service-asynch
call-bsh
call-simple-method

Java Call Operations

create-object
call-object-method
call-class-method

Control and Error Handling Operations

check-errors
add-error
return

Event Specific Operations

field-to-request
field-to-session
request-to-field
request-parameters-to-list
session-to-field
webapp-property-to-field

Service Specific Operations

field-to-result

Method Environment Operations

map-to-map
field-to-list
to-string
clear-field

[All operations in red have been be replaced by set operation] 

field-to-field (deprecated, do not use)
env-to-env (deprecated, do not use)
env-to-field (deprecated, do not use)
field-to-env (deprecated, do not use)
string-to-field (deprecated, do not use)

Control Operations

iterate
first-from-list

Entity Engine Misc. Operations

now-timestamp-to-env
now-date-to-env

The now-date-to-env tag creates a java.sql.Date object with the current date in it and puts it in a field in the method environment.

sequenced-id-to-env

The sequenced-id-to-env tag gets a sequenced ID from the Entity Engine (through the delegator) and puts it in the specified method environment field. The object will be a java.lang.Long, but can of course be converted to a String.

set-current-user-login

The set-current-user-login tag sets the UserLogin GenericValue object to be used for authentication for the rest of the method. This is mostly used for calling services, etc.

Entity Engine Find Operations

find-by-primary-key

The find-by-primary-key tag uses the delegator to find an entity value by its primary key. The resulting GenericValue object will be placed in the method environment using the specified value-name.

find-by-and

The find-by-and tag uses the delegator to find entity values by anding the fields passed in the map. The resulting GenericValue objects will be placed in the method environment using the specified list-name.

filter-list-by-and

The filter-list-by-and tag filters the given list by the fields in the specified map.

filter-list-by-date

The filter-list-by-date tag filters the given list by the valid date using the from and thru dates in each value object.

Entity Engine Value Operations

make-value

The make-value tag uses the delegator to construct an entity value. The resulting value will not necessarily exist in the database, but will simply be assembled using the entity-name and fields map. The resulting GenericValue object will be placed in the method environment using the specified value-name.

clone-value

The clone-value tag make a copy of the value in the method environment field specified by value-name. The resulting GenericValue object will be placed in the method environment using the specified new-value-name.

create-value

The create-value tag persists the specified GenericValue object by creating a new instance of the entity in the datasource. An error will result if an instance of the entity exists in the datasource with the same primary key.

store-value

The store-value tag persists the specified GenericValue object by updating the instance of the entity in the datasource. An error will result if an instance of the entity does not exist in the datasource with the same primary key.

remove-value

The remove-value tag removes the specified GenericValue object by removing the instance of the entity in the datasource. An error will result if an instance of the entity does not exist in the datasource with the same primary key.

remove-by-and

The remove-by-and tag uses the delegator to remove entity values from the datasource and is constrained by anding the fields passed in the map. Make sure the map contains something, or all values will be removed.

clear-cache-line

Uses the delegator to clear elements from the cache; intelligently looks at the map passed to see if it is a byPrimaryKey, and byAnd, or an all.

clear-entity-caches

This is a very simple tag that should be used sparingly because of the performance impact. It clears all lines from all Entity Engine caches. It has no attributes or sub-elements.

set-pk-fields

Looks for each PK field in the named map and if it exists there it will copy it into the named value object.

set-nonpk-fields

Looks for each non-PK field in the named map and if it exists there it will copy it into the named value object.

Entity Engine List Operations

store-list

The store-list tag uses the delegator to store all entity values in the list. This is different than storing a single value in that values in the list will be inserted if it does not exist or updated if it does exist.

remove-list

The remove-list tag uses the delegator to remove all entity values in the list. For each value in the list if it is a primary key just that entity instance will be removed, but if it is not a full primary key all entity instances will be removed from the datasource that match the constraint of the field map.

Entity Engine Transaction Operations

transaction-begin

The transaction-begin tag will begin a transaction if one is not already in place. If a transaction is begun the environment field named as the began-transaction-name will be set to true, otherwise it will be set to false.

Note that unless the simple-method is flagged to not use a transaction all simple-methods will be inside a transaction. The same is true for service calls through the Service Engine.

transaction-commit

The transaction-commit tag will commit a transaction if a transaction was begun in the current demarcation context as represented by the environment field named as the began-transaction-name. If the Boolean in that field is false no commit will be done.

transaction-rollback

The transaction-rollback tag will rollback a transaction if a transaction was begun in the current demarcation context as represented by the environment field named as the began-transaction-name. If the Boolean in that field is false a set rollback only will operation will be done instead of rollback which will force the transaction to rollback regardless of which method or object is responsible for beginning and ending the transaction.

Conditional (If) Operations

if

The if operation offers a flexible way of specifying combinations of conditions, alternate conditions, and operations to run on true evaluation of the conditions or to run otherwise.

The other if operations are meant for a specific, simple condition when used outside of the condition sub-element of this operation. The attributes of the other if operations are the same when used inside this operation. In this case they are empty tags and do not have any sub-elements because the operations to run are under the then or else tags.

if-validate-method

The operations contained by the if-validate-method tag will only be executed if the validate method returns true. This tag can contain any of the simple-method operations, including the conditional/if operations.

if-compare

The operations contained by the if-compare tag will only be executed if the comparison returns true. This tag can contain any of the simple-method operations, including the conditional/if operations.

if-compare-field

The operations contained by the if-compare-field tag will only be executed if the comparison returns true. This tag can contain any of the simple-method operations, including the conditional/if operations.

if-regexp

The operations contained by the if-regexp tag will only be executed if the value complies with the regular expression. This tag can contain any of the simple-method operations, including the conditional/if operations.

if-empty

The operations contained by the if-empty tag will only be executed if the map field is empty. This tag can contain any of the simple-method operations, including the conditional/if operations.

if-not-empty

The operations contained by the if-not-empty tag will only be executed if the map field is not empty. This tag can contain any of the simple-method operations, including the conditional/if operations.

if-has-permission

The operations contained by the if-has-permission tag will only be executed if the user has the specified permission, and optionally the action. This tag can contain any of the simple-method operations, including the conditional/if operations.

check-permission

The check-permission tag checks to see if the current user has the specified permission. The the user does not have the specified permission or there is no user associated with the context then the failure message from fail-message or file-property will be added to the specified error list.

check-id

The check-id tag checks to see if the ID value in the given field is a valid ID string. Valid IDs can be any sequence of characters or digits but must not containt the following characters: space [ ], doublequote ["], single quote ['], ampersand [&], question mark [?], less-than sign [<], greater-than sign [>].

Other Operations

property-to-field

The property-to-field tag puts the inlined string value in the specified field.

log

The log tag logs a message used the OFBiz Debug class, which uses Log4J to log to the console, a file, or some other location. The message is a concatenation of the message attribute and then all of the field and string sub-element values in the order they are specified.

calculate

The calculate tag performs the specified calculation and puts the result in an object in the field of the specified map (see the calculate element attribute descriptions above). The type of the object can be specified with thetype attribute, but defaults to Double.

The calculate tag can contain calcop andnumber tags, and thecalcop tag can also contain these two tags to enable nested calculations.

Each calcop tag has three attributes: operator, map-name and field-name. Only the operator is required. The operator specifies the operation to perform on the given field and nested calcops and numbers. It must be one of the following: get | add | subtract | multiply | divide | negative.

Regardless of the operator the action is very similar. It translates to a formula like the following: (V1 operator V2 operator V3). In other words a final result is calculated by applying the operator to the values in the order they are specified. If a field-name (and optionally map-name) is specifies on the calcop tag that field will be used as the first value, otherwise the first nested calcop or number will be the first value.

The get operator is just an alias for add. It adds all of the values under it. Likewise the negative operator is almost an alias for subtract, with the exception that the first value is negated instead of left positive. For convenience the calculate tag itself acts like an add, in other words the calcops and numbers under it are all added together.

Here is an example of an XML snippet that performs the calculationa=b+(((c+x+2)-d)/e), or in Reverse Polish Notation (a little bit closer to the resulting XML, and the notation used in the Rule Engine)a=(b,/(((c,x,2),-d),e)). Here is the XML: <calculate field-name="a">
<calcop operator="get" field-name="b"/>
<calcop operator="divide">
<calcop operator="multiply">
<calcop operator="add" field-name="c">
<calcop operator="get" field-name="x"/>
<number value="2"/>
</calcop>
<calcop operator="negative" field-name="d"/>
</calcop>
<calcop operator="get" field-name="e"/>
</calcop>
</calculate>

Simple Methods Example

<simple-methods xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="[<span style="color: #ff0000"><strong>to be modified</strong></span> [www.ofbiz.org/dtds/simple-methods.xsd]]"><simple-method method-name="createProduct" short-description="Create an Product">
<check-permission permission="CATALOG" action="_CREATE"><fail-message message="Security Error: to run createProduct you must have the CATALOG_CREATE or CATALOG_ADMIN permission"/></check-permission>
<check-id field-name="productId" map-name="parameters"/>
<check-errors/>

<make-value value-name="newEntity" entity-name="Product"/>
<set-nonpk-fields map-name="parameters" value-name="newEntity"/>
<set-pk-fields map-name="parameters" value-name="newEntity"/>

<now-timestamp-to-env env-name="newEntity.lastModifiedDate"/>
<now-timestamp-to-env env-name="newEntity.createdDate"/>
<set from-field="userLogin.userLoginId" field="newEntity.lastModifiedByUserLogin"/>
<set from-field="userLogin.userLoginId" field="newEntity.createdByUserLogin"/>
<create-value value-name="newEntity"/>

<!- induce keywords if autoCreateKeywords is emtpy or Y->
<if-empty field-name="autoCreateKeywords" map-name="newEntity">
<call-bsh><![CDATA[org.ofbiz.commonapp.product.product.KeywordSearch.induceKeywords(newEntity);]]></call-bsh>
<else>
<if-compare field-name="autoCreateKeywords" map-name="newEntity" operator="equals" value="Y">
<call-bsh><![CDATA[org.ofbiz.commonapp.product.product.KeywordSearch.induceKeywords(newEntity);]]></call-bsh>
</if-compare>
</else>
</if-empty>
</simple-method>
<simple-method event-name="create" short-description="Create Work Effort">
<call-map-processor xml-resource="org/ofbiz/commonapp/workeffort/workeffort/WorkEffortMapProcessors.xml"
processor-name="update" in-map-name="parameters" out-map-name="context"/>
<check-errors/>
<call-service service-name="createWorkEffort" in-map-name="context">
<default-message>Work Effort successfully created.</default-message>
<result-to-request result-name="workEffortId"/></service>
</simple-method>
<simple-method event-name="update" short-description="Update Work Effort">
<call-map-processor xml-resource="org/ofbiz/commonapp/workeffort/workeffort/WorkEffortMapProcessors.xml"
processor-name="update" in-map-name="parameters" out-map-name="context"/>
<check-errors/>
<call-service service-name="updateWorkEffort" in-map-name="context">
<default-message>Work Effort successfully updated.</default-message></service>
</simple-method>

</simple-methods>