Provide support for "fluid" beans
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Key: BEANUTILS-335
URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/BEANUTILS-335
Project: Commons BeanUtils
Issue Type: New Feature
Components: Bean / Property Utils
Reporter: Dan Fabulich
The attached patch allows users to easily define what I'm calling a "fluid"
bean (though there might be a better name for it).
The idea here is to write a bean that doesn't follow the standard JavaBean
convention. Specifically, a "fluid" bean's setters return "this," so you can
"chain" calls to the setters, and the getters and setters don't start with
"get/set" but are just the name of the property. For example:
{code}public class Employee extends AbstractFluidBean {
private String firstName, lastName;
public String firstName() { return firstName; }
public Employee firstName(String firstName) {
this.firstName = firstName;
return this;
}
public String lastName() { return lastName; }
public Employee lastName(String lastName) {
this.lastName = lastName;
return this;
}
}{code}
Fluid beans have some limitations: you can't use indexed or mapped properties
with a fluid bean (because there's no way to disambiguate an indexed getter
from a simple setter). I think that's OK because indexed properties are a bit
silly. (Why not just return a List or a Map?)
But I think they have substantial readability advantages. With a fluid bean,
you can write code like this:
{code}
HumanResources.hire(new Employee().firstName("Dan").lastName("Fabulich"));
{code}
For an example of fluid chained setters in the wild, see (for example)
Effective Java Second Edition by Joshua Bloch. In Item 2 "Consider a builder
when faced with many constructor parameters" Bloch defines a fluid bean with
chained setters, so you can use it like this:
{code}
NutritionFacts cocoCola = new NutritionFacts.Builder(240, 8)
.calories(100).sodium(35).carbohydrate(27).build();
{code}
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