PropertiesBeanDefinitionReader List Attribute

[jcharnet]

Hello, is it possible to declare a List attribute (similar to <List><value>...</value></list> in an xml configuration) as a Properties configuration ?

Thanks a lot.

Sincerely,

John

[gmateo]

Hi,

Following there is an example of declaring list in the spring container.

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schem...-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util-3.0.xsd">


<util:list id="phones">
<value>12121</value>
<value>12122</value>
<value>3332423</value>
</util:list>
</beans>

I hope that will be helpful for you.
Regards

[jcharnet]

Actually, what I need is to be able to declare a list as a property and not as an xml.
The spring documentation has these examples
employee.(class)=MyClass // bean is of class MyClass
employee.(abstract)=true // this bean can't be instantiated directly
employee.group=Insurance // real property
employee.usesDialUp=false // real property (potentially overridden)

salesrep.(parent)=employee // derives from "employee" bean definition
salesrep.(lazy-init)=true // lazily initialize this singleton bean
salesrep.manager(ref)=tony // reference to another bean
salesrep.department=Sales // real property

techie.(parent)=employee // derives from "employee" bean definition
techie.(scope)=prototype // bean is a prototype (not a shared instance)
techie.manager(ref)=jeff // reference to another bean
techie.department=Engineering // real property
techie.usesDialUp=true // real property (overriding parent value)

ceo.$0(ref)=secretary // inject 'secretary' bean as 0th constructor arg
ceo.$1=1000000 // inject value '1000000' at 1st constructor arg

Is it possible to have a special syntax for a list attribute ?
techie.(list)=value ?
Something like that ?

[gmateo]

Check this.
It seems that it was requested before but was not done.

https://jira.springsource.org/browse...3Aall-tabpanel

[jcharnet]

Thanks for the reply.
So I guess I can't expect it to be done sometime from now, huh ?

Any workarrounds you see that I could do ?
I really need this feature. :-(

Thanks again.

Sincerely,

John

[gmateo]

Hi,
You can solve your problem using customEditors.
Following there is an example

public final class ClassWithListTesting {

    public void testSettingListAttribute() {
        DefaultListableBeanFactory lbf = new DefaultListableBeanFactory();
        lbf.registerCustomEditor(List.class, ListTypeEditor.class);
        Properties p = new Properties();
        p.setProperty("x1.(class)", ClassWithListAttribute.class.getName());
        p.setProperty("x1.list", "a,b,c");
        (new PropertiesBeanDefinitionReader(lbf)).registerBeanDefinitions(p);
        // Getting the bean reference
        ClassWithListAttribute classWithListAttribute = (ClassWithListAttribute) lbf.getBean("x1");
        System.out.println("List:" + classWithListAttribute.getList());
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ClassWithListTesting test = new ClassWithListTesting();
        test.testSettingListAttribute();
    }

    private static class ClassWithListAttribute {
        private List list;
        public List getList() {
            return list;
        }
        public void setList(List list) {
            this.list = list;
        }
    }

    public static class ListTypeEditor extends PropertyEditorSupport {
        public void setAsText(String text) {
            String[] str = StringUtils.commaDelimitedListToStringArray(text);
            setValue(Arrays.asList(str));
        }
    }

In this example I am using the ListTypeEditor in order to set properly the attributes of type List.

I hope this will be useful for you, otherwise let me know in order to think in other ways to address your problem.
Regards