Hi Tomas, I missed the original mail and just reviewed both patches (+1 from my side).
I think introducing generics to UiCommon is a step in the right direction; as you wrote, using non-generic types (i.e. List instead of List<ElementType>) leads to hidden expectations and type casts that make code harder to read and maintain (and also impacts GwtCommon/WebAdmin/UserPortal code that needs to adapt to such code). Do we have some general plan to cover UiCommon as a whole? - patch [1] modifies EntityModel/ListModel, what about other base models? (i.e. SearchableListModel) - patch [1] adds String version of EntityModelTextBox, what about other editor widgets? [*] according to your original mail, these are: EntityModelLabel, EntityModelTextAreaLabel, EntityModelPasswordBox, EntityModelTextArea, ListModelSuggestBox - any other change necessary? (aside from modifying specific model classes such as DataCenterModel) [*] IIUC for each editor widget we need: the widget itself, editor, renderer/parser (potential reuse) What about following approach (just a suggestion): [separate patch - rebased on patch 1] - make remaining base models generic too (i.e. SearchableListModel) - add remaining GUI infra to bind to generic models, i.e. editor widgets and related stuff [separate patch per specific main tab model] - make main tab model use generics (including any dialog models referenced from this code) - make related sub tab models use generics (including any dialog models referenced from this code) Having said that, I value your effort to improve existing code. This is not an easy task, it will take more patches but I think it's worth it. Thanks! Vojtech ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Tomas Jelinek" <tjeli...@redhat.com> > To: "engine-devel" <engine-devel@ovirt.org> > Cc: "Vojtech Szocs" <vsz...@redhat.com>, "Daniel Erez" <de...@redhat.com>, > "Gilad Chaplik" <gchap...@redhat.com>, > "Tal Nisan" <tni...@redhat.com>, "Alona Kaplan" <alkap...@redhat.com> > Sent: Friday, September 27, 2013 1:32:14 PM > Subject: Re: [Engine-devel] Introducing generics to UiCommon > > Hey all, > > some time ago I have created a patch which introduces generics to UiCommon > [1] and one which uses it > in DataCenterModel [2]. Today I have changed a bit the generic version of the > EntityModelTextBox to > be truly generic (since it can edit also e.g. integers) and than a simple > subclass StringEntityModelTextBox > which provides the String renderer/parser to simplify the usage. All the > other details are available in the previous > mail. > > What do you think about it? > > Tomas > > [1]: http://gerrit.ovirt.org/#/c/17604/ > [2]: http://gerrit.ovirt.org/#/c/17605/ > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Tomas Jelinek" <tjeli...@redhat.com> > > To: "engine-devel" <engine-devel@ovirt.org> > > Sent: Monday, August 5, 2013 9:41:29 AM > > Subject: [Engine-devel] Introducing generics to UiCommon > > > > Hey all, > > > > as we have passed the oVirt feature freeze I would like to celebrate it > > with > > a little bit of cleanup :) > > > > A good candidate for this is to introduce generics into uicommonweb > > project. > > The fact that it is not generic > > brings quite some hidden expectations into our code, makes it unreadable > > and > > error prone. > > > > Also, the gwt-common and both webadmin and userportal are mostly prepared > > to > > be generic but because the uicommonweb is not, we have code like: > > > > new ListModelListBoxEditor<Object>(new NullSafeRenderer<Object>() { > > @Override > > public String renderNullSafe(Object object) > > return ((Version) object).getValue(); > > } > > }); > > > > which is quite ugly and error prone. > > > > So I have prepared two patches, one [1] which introduces the generic > > infrastructure (and prepares one widget for it, more about this below) and > > one [2] which uses it and refactors the DataCenterModel > > to use it (I have chosen this model because it is big enough to show how to > > do it and what the benefits are but small enough to be quickly > > review-able). > > > > The infrastructure change: > > - changes the ListModel and EntityModel to be genreic > > - adjusts the UiCommonEditorDriverGenerator to work with generics (e.g. to > > make it aware that ListModel<String> is indeed a ListModel, same for > > EntityModel) > > - created a String version of EntityModelTextBox > > > > The reason why the String EntityModelTextBox had to be created is that the > > EntityModelTextBox is an EditorWidget<Object, ...> so it can work only with > > EntityModel<Object>. I saw 2 ways how to make this work with > > EntityModel<String>: > > 1: Create a String version of this editor inside the .generic sub-package, > > incrementally replace the usage of the non-generic EntityModelTextBox and > > when the non-generic will be completely replaced, delete it and move the > > generic one > > out from the generic sub-package > > > > 2: Change the EditorWidget<Object, ...> to EditorWidget<T, ...> and replace > > each usage of the "EntityModelTextBox someWidget" by > > "EntityModelTextBox<Object> someWidget" and than incrementally replace the > > <Object> to <String> as the > > underlying models will be refactored. After the last one will be > > refactored, change the EditorWidget<T, ...> to EditorWidget<String, ...> > > and replace all "EntityModelTextBox<Object> someWidget" by > > "EntityModelTextBox someWidget" > > > > I have chosen the first option because: > > - much less classes touched at once (e.g. much more safe) > > - the EntityModelTextBox<T> invites to use something like > > EntityModelTextBox<VM> which is not correct and fails on class cast > > exceptions > > > > But at the same time I see the disadvantages of this approach (mostly that > > we > > have two versions of the same class). Please note that far not all the > > widgets will need two versions, only the ones editing only Strings which > > are declared as EditorWidget<Object> which are: > > - EntityModelLabel > > - EntityModelTextAreaLabel (used only in couple of places - can be > > refactored > > together without the need to have two versions) > > - EntityModelTextBox (already in the [1]) > > - EntityModelPasswordBox > > - EntityModelTextArea > > - ListModelSuggestBox (used only in couple of places - can be refactored > > together without the need to have two versions) > > > > The rest of the widgets should be already prepared to be used in generic > > environment. > > > > Please let me know what do you think about it, > > > > have a nice day, > > Tomas > > > > [1]: http://gerrit.ovirt.org/#/c/17604/ > > [2]: http://gerrit.ovirt.org/#/c/17605/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Engine-devel mailing list > > Engine-devel@ovirt.org > > http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/engine-devel > > > _______________________________________________ Engine-devel mailing list Engine-devel@ovirt.org http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/engine-devel
