On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 11:42, Caleb James DeLisle <[email protected]> wrote: > I believe that in order for a new api to be accepted by the community, it > must be more useful and/or easier to use > than the api which it replaces. > > The old way of getting a document was this: > $xwiki.getDocument("xwiki:Main.WebHome") > > The current way to get a document is this: > $xwiki.getDocument($services.model.createDocumentReference($context.wiki, > $space, "WebHome")) > > I am quite sure that the user community will choose the former even if it has > escaping issues. > > Lest one think we can bully the community into choosing the latter by > deprecation or removal of methods, recall > the dismal sales of Windows Vista even with the control afforded by the > proprietary license and the awesome power > Microsoft wields over the market. The user is the boss, their word is law. > > My first proposal is that we move to an easier way to handle document names. > > > > My second proposal is a possible way to do it. > I would like velocity and groovy script authors to be able to give a command > like this: > xwiki.getDocument(["Main", "WebHome"]); > or in velocity > $xwiki.getDocument(["Main", "WebHome"]) > > To make that possible I am proposing we change the reference model as follows: > EntityReference extends List<String> > Each reference has a name which is expressed as a string, it also has a > reference to the next node and the last > node. This is a classic example of a LinkedList. The point is that any > List<String> is a valid (although reletive) > reference. When a relative reference is passed, it is replaced with a > complete reference which is completed using > the document in the context. > > As you prepare your -1's please recognize that the community will never go > for the current model and almost > anything is better than a rift between the community and the development > team. If there are any other ideas of > how to make it that easy, I would be glad to hear them.
I don't see why making public script API to get a document easier imply to change EntityReferences. You can always have this xwiki.getDocument(["Main", "WebHome"]); without touching EntityReferences design, you just create a reference from this list in the getDocument implementation. Problem with your proposal is that it will introduce several limitations since you have only strings: You have no idea what is what in this String list you can only rely on the index of the string in the list. - the current EntityReferences is that way because we wanted to make possible to have a reference with just the wiki and the page and give it to a resolver to get a full reference - how do you support multiple spaces since you can't know which of theses strings are spaces ? > > > Caleb > > _______________________________________________ > devs mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs > -- Thomas Mortagne _______________________________________________ devs mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs
