[jira] [Resolved] (SCXML-242) Provide JSON based datamodel as replacement for XML/XPath

["Ate Douma (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

     [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SCXML-242?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:all-tabpanel ]

Ate Douma resolved SCXML-242.
-----------------------------
    Resolution: Fixed

Thanks [~woon_san] for the review!

Concerning the suggested improvements for the ContentParser: they all make sense.
However, I'm actually working on rewriting the SCXMLReader completely, making it XML DOM instead of XMLStream based...
There are just too many use-cases (not yet, or not properly, implemented) which need an XML DOM representation or parsing of the SCXML model, like for an <invoke> with an nested <content> containing an embedded SCXML document, or other <content> use-cases.
The current SCXMLReader currently cannot be used for this but first need a stringified representation again to be able to parse it (again!) via XMLStream.
Making this XML DOM based 'parsing' really simplifies things a lot further, and this will also 'affect' (simplify) the logic currently contained within the ContentParser.
Maybe even no longer needed (to be merged back into the new SCXMLReader).
Anyway, I will take you suggestions into account for this rewrite.

Concerning the earlier suggestion about using Node.getTextContent() in #readData() instead of using #getNodeValue():
this isn't needed and won't make a difference as the content parsing in #readNode already deals with CDATA content (converting it into a single TEXT_NODE). 

> Provide JSON based datamodel as replacement for XML/XPath
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: SCXML-242
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SCXML-242
>             Project: Commons SCXML
>          Issue Type: New Feature
>            Reporter: Ate Douma
>            Assignee: Ate Douma
>             Fix For: 2.0
>
>
> The XML/XPath datamodel, with 'convenient' support through Data() and Location() operations for usage within the Jexl, Javascript and Groovy SCXML languages has been the root and cause of many invasive and complicating problems in the implementation of Commons SCXML (2.0).
> The [SCXML 1.0 specification|http://www.w3.org/TR/2015/REC-scxml-20150901/] has dropped the xpath datamodel from the specification because of similar/same complications and (also thereof) lack of 'reference' implementations.
> Further maintaining and trying to 'improve' on the XML/XPath datamodel support in Commons SCXML therefore will be stopped and removed from the implementation all together.
> Instead and as replacement new JSON datamodel support will be added, which also aligns with the (optional) Ecmascript datamodel as described in the SCXML specification.
> The JSON based datamodel will be parsed (in Java) into a 'raw' object model, consisting of plain Maps (JSON Object) and Lists (JSON Array), and thus trivially to be used from the Commons SCXML supported languages (Jexl, Groovy and Javascript).
> As this new JSON datamodel will replace all XML/XPath usages, part of this new feature implementation will be updating and replacing all the example/unit-test usages in the codebase, and thereby also removing all usages of the custom Data() and Location() functions.
> Once these changes are in place, the Data() and Location() custom functions will then be removed as well.
> Finally, the XPath language itself then can be removed, including all the supporting logic scattered throughout the engine implementation itself, but this will be done as a separate issue afterwards.     



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