Call-method command

[peterfarrell]

Often when writing Mach II applications the developer is required to create a method in a listener that simply calls a method in the application's service layer with out any additional logic. This requires the developer to write extra listener methods that don't really serve any purpose. Mach II should make this easier by providing a command that can be used in the Mach II configuration file to allow the framework to call a method in the service layer and optionally put the result in a event argument. Simple argument passing should be allow via the use of the new expression syntax for access elements in the event or properties objects.

M2SFP Call-Method Command

[peterfarrell]

This has been implemented in the BER of Mach-II 1.8.

[peterfarrell]

I have added configurableCommandTargets to the command loader base with the ColdSpring property can then ask for to autowire.

[peterfarrell]

(In [1259]) - Closes #180

[peterfarrell]

I've been using this command quite a bit and I've found that my arguments attribute can get pretty long which become unmanageable. Example:

<call-method bean="assessmentService" 
  method="getRecommendedAssessmentsByJobProfileTemplateId"
  arguments="${event.assessmentBattery.jobProfile.jobProfileTemplateId},${event.assessmentBattery.jobProfile.companyId}"
  resultArg="recommendedAssessments"/>

I was thinking that we should continue to support the current attribute, but optionally support this as well (positional arguments):

<call-method bean="assessmentService" 
  method="getRecommendedAssessmentsByJobProfileTemplateId"
  resultArg="recommendedAssessments">
  <argument value="${event.assessmentBattery.jobProfile.jobProfileTemplateId}"/>
  <argument value="${event.assessmentBattery.jobProfile.companyId}"/>
</call-method>

Or the same thing using named arguments:

<call-method bean="assessmentService" 
  method="getRecommendedAssessmentsByJobProfileTemplateId"
  resultArg="recommendedAssessments">
  <argument name="jobProfileId" value="${event.assessmentBattery.jobProfile.jobProfileTemplateId}"/>
  <argument name="companyId" value="${event.assessmentBattery.jobProfile.companyId}"/>
</call-method>

Thoughts?

[kurtwiersma]

Yes I agree this would be a nice addition.

[peterfarrell]

Kurt, I assume you'll take on this task? The other option we need to consider is would we allow people to nest arguments between the call-method tags and use the arguments attribute as well? I would think you could only use one or the other.

[kurtwiersma]

Yes I have actually already started working on this addition to this ticket.

[peterfarrell]

Ok, good to know. Cannot wait to play with it as I'm already sick of mile long arguments attributes in my applications. Oh, be sure to update the wiki documentation on this when you are done so it's up to date (both the M2SPF and the xml syntax reference).

[peterfarrell]

I think we should rename the arguments attribute to args so it remains inline with the args attribute of the redirect command. Thoughts?