JSON instead of WTKX/BXML?

[Christian Schlichtherle <ch...@schlichtherle.de>]

Hi,

 

I am new to Apache Pivot and try to find an answer to what I guess might be
an FAQ - but I could not yet find an answer yet.

 

So here is my question: Is it possible to declare my UI components using
JSON instead of XML?

 

I found the class JSONSerializer in the Javadoc for 1.5.2, but it doesn't
provide the same interface as WTKXSerializer, so I wonder if it's possible.

 

Why I'ld like to use it? Because I am not a particular fan of XML tag soup
and I think it would be a great architectural feature if Apache Pivot would
not only provide the freedom of choice of a UI scripting language
(Jacascript, Groovy etc.), but also the freedom of choice of a UI component
declaration language.

 

I'm not sure if it's feasible at all, however.

 

Regards,

Christian Schlichtherle

Re: JSON instead of WTKX/BXML?

[Greg Brown <gk...@mac.com>]

FWIW, I have thought about implementing something like this in the past, and there are a few challenges. The first one you will run into is how to specify an object's type. For example, consider this BXML which creates a Window with a Label as its content:

<Window>
    <content>
        <Label text="Hello">
    </content>
</Window>

Since "content" is Window's default property, this example can actually be shortened to the following:

<Window>
    <Label text="Hello">
</Window>

How would you specify this in JSON? You could try this:

{   "content": {
        "text": "Hello"
    }
}

But that doesn't tell you that the root object is a Window and the content object is a Label. You'd need to extend the JSON syntax to support something like this:

"Window": {
    "content":  "Label" {
        "text": "Hello"
    }
}

However, JSON doesn't support namespaces, so you might actually need to do something like this (or further extend JSON to add namespace support):

"org.apache.pivot.wtk.Window": {
    "content":  "org.apache.pivot.wtk.Label" {
        "text": "Hello"
    }
}

That starts to look a lot more verbose (and a lot less readable) than the XML version:

<Window>
    <Label text="Hello">
</Window>

Note however that you can still use JSONSerializer to return typed objects. If you pass a type argument to the JSONSerializer constructor, it will use reflection to determine what to instantiate. The only limitation is that the instantiated types cannot be abstract. For example, JSONSerializer cannot be used to read the sample JSON shown above, since Window's content property is an instance of the abstract Component class (there is no way for JSONSerializer to know that it should create a Label vs. an arbitrary Component):

{   "content": {
        "text": "Hello"
    }
}

However, this technique is still pretty handy, particularly for deserializing JSON into application-specific data objects.

Hope this helps,
G

On Nov 10, 2010, at 8:12 PM, Superstring Media wrote:

> I'm also interested in this.
> 
> In my application I also have a related issue where I would use a BXML (or BJSON) file to create a graph of context objects where each context object is basically a container for a number of maps. I'd like to be able to include references to JSON files that contain key-value pairs that are then dumped into a given map in one of the context objects.
> 
> Then I need to swap key-values from any number of alternate JSON files in/out of a given map in a context object. Likely BXML (or BJSON) would not be required for this because the graph of context object does not need to be rebuilt, only the key-values in given maps need to be swapped or have additional key-values added them.
> 
> Thom
> 
> 
> On 2010-11-10, at 6:53 PM, Greg Brown wrote:
> 
>> It isn't currently supported, though there's nothing to preclude you (or someone) from writing such support.
>> G
>> 
>> On Nov 10, 2010, at 6:33 PM, Christian Schlichtherle wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi,
>>>  
>>> I am new to Apache Pivot and try to find an answer to what I guess might be an FAQ – but I could not yet find an answer yet.
>>>  
>>> So here is my question: Is it possible to declare my UI components using JSON instead of XML?
>>>  
>>> I found the class JSONSerializer in the Javadoc for 1.5.2, but it doesn’t provide the same interface as WTKXSerializer, so I wonder if it’s possible.
>>>  
>>> Why I’ld like to use it? Because I am not a particular fan of XML tag soup and I think it would be a great architectural feature if Apache Pivot would not only provide the freedom of choice of a UI scripting language (Jacascript, Groovy etc.), but also the freedom of choice of a UI component declaration language.
>>>  
>>> I’m not sure if it’s feasible at all, however.
>>>  
>>> Regards,
>>> Christian Schlichtherle
>> 
> 

Re: JSON instead of WTKX/BXML?

[Superstring Media <su...@gmail.com>]

I'm also interested in this.

In my application I also have a related issue where I would use a BXML (or BJSON) file to create a graph of context objects where each context object is basically a container for a number of maps. I'd like to be able to include references to JSON files that contain key-value pairs that are then dumped into a given map in one of the context objects.

Then I need to swap key-values from any number of alternate JSON files in/out of a given map in a context object. Likely BXML (or BJSON) would not be required for this because the graph of context object does not need to be rebuilt, only the key-values in given maps need to be swapped or have additional key-values added them.

Thom


On 2010-11-10, at 6:53 PM, Greg Brown wrote:

> It isn't currently supported, though there's nothing to preclude you (or someone) from writing such support.
> G
> 
> On Nov 10, 2010, at 6:33 PM, Christian Schlichtherle wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>>  
>> I am new to Apache Pivot and try to find an answer to what I guess might be an FAQ – but I could not yet find an answer yet.
>>  
>> So here is my question: Is it possible to declare my UI components using JSON instead of XML?
>>  
>> I found the class JSONSerializer in the Javadoc for 1.5.2, but it doesn’t provide the same interface as WTKXSerializer, so I wonder if it’s possible.
>>  
>> Why I’ld like to use it? Because I am not a particular fan of XML tag soup and I think it would be a great architectural feature if Apache Pivot would not only provide the freedom of choice of a UI scripting language (Jacascript, Groovy etc.), but also the freedom of choice of a UI component declaration language.
>>  
>> I’m not sure if it’s feasible at all, however.
>>  
>> Regards,
>> Christian Schlichtherle
> 

Re: JSON instead of WTKX/BXML?

[Greg Brown <gk...@mac.com>]

It isn't currently supported, though there's nothing to preclude you (or someone) from writing such support.
G

On Nov 10, 2010, at 6:33 PM, Christian Schlichtherle wrote:

> Hi,
>  
> I am new to Apache Pivot and try to find an answer to what I guess might be an FAQ – but I could not yet find an answer yet.
>  
> So here is my question: Is it possible to declare my UI components using JSON instead of XML?
>  
> I found the class JSONSerializer in the Javadoc for 1.5.2, but it doesn’t provide the same interface as WTKXSerializer, so I wonder if it’s possible.
>  
> Why I’ld like to use it? Because I am not a particular fan of XML tag soup and I think it would be a great architectural feature if Apache Pivot would not only provide the freedom of choice of a UI scripting language (Jacascript, Groovy etc.), but also the freedom of choice of a UI component declaration language.
>  
> I’m not sure if it’s feasible at all, however.
>  
> Regards,
> Christian Schlichtherle