FlexXB 2.2.0 released!
19 views
Skip to first unread message
Alexutz
Jun 27, 2011, 2:38:56 PM6/27/11
to FxWorks
I am happy to announce yet another release of FlexXB. The 2.2.0
version brings a couple of fixes/enhancements to the library.
First off, we now have a metadata.xml descriptor file for all FlexXB
annotations; this will probably save you a bunch of time by showing
you the available options right in the FlashBuilder IDE thanks to
their neat way of parsing the xml descriptor. I've been pondering at
some point on writing an eclipse plug-in to do just that but Adobe
saved me from this :D.
The second change is at namespace references in xml member
annotations. Now you can use "" (empty string) when setting namespace
attribute for the annotation and make the engine use the local
namespace. This is useful when your class has a global namespace
defined in the XmlClass annotation but some fields require the local
one (or none).
The third change involves the custom serialization. When you implement
ISerializable, upon deserialization your method needs to return a
reference to the object that was deserialized. Most times it's "this"
but when it's not, meaning you create a new object to deserialize
within the method, the engine will return you the old reference
instead of the new one.
This should be it for now. Should you have problems with the release
I'll be around :). Until next time!
Enjoy,
Alex
P.S: As usual, below you can find the readme file content:
/
*******************************************************************************************************/
/** FlexXB version 2.2.0 (27-06-2011) **/
/** by Alex Ciobanu **/
/
*******************************************************************************************************/
Copyright 2008 - 2011 Alex Ciobanu (http://code.google.com/p/flexxb)
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
CONTENTS
FlexXB-2_2_0-27062011-bin.zip - contains the FlexXB library along with
the test application
/bin/ - SWC file and test application directory
/bin/test/ - the test application
/bin/flexunit - flexunit automated test reports
/bin/api-schema - XSD schema defining the structure of
the XML file that describes types that can't be annotated
/doc/ - ASDOC
/samples/ - samples showing FlexXB features
/README.txt - version release notes
FlexXB-2_2_0-27062011-src.zip - contains source files
/FlexXB/ - FlexXB project sources
/FlexXBTest - FlexXB test application sources
DESCRIPTION
FlexXB is an ActionScript library designed to automate the AS3
objects' serialization to XML to be sent to a backend server
and the xml deserialization into AS3 objects of a response received
from that server.
In order for FlexXB to be able to automate the (de)serialization
process, the model objects involved must be "decorated" with
AS3 metadata tags that will instruct it on how they should be
processed:
* Which object fields translate into xml attributes, which into xml
elements and which should be ignored?
* Should we use namespaces to build the request xml and parse the
response one? If so, what are the namespaces?
* The object's fields need to have different names in the xml
representation?
All this information is linked to the object by adding metadata tags
(annotations - in Java - or attributes - in .NET) to the
class definition of the object in question.
When an object is passed to it for serialization, it inspects the
object's definition and extracts a list of annotations
describing the way an object of that type needs to be (de)serialized.
It keeps the generated list in a cache in order to
reuse it if need arises and then builds the corresponding XML using
the information provided by the annotations. Any object
field that does not have an annotation defined is ignored in the
(de)serialization process of that object.
There are five built-in annotations for describing object
serialization, one being class-scoped, the other field-scoped:
* XmlClass: Defines class's namespace (by uri and prefix) and xml
alias;
* ConstructorArg: Defines the arguments with which the constructor
should be run. Applies to classes with non default constructors and is
defined at the same level with XmlXClass;
* Namespace: defines alternate namespaces used by elements of the
class. It is defined at class level and multiple definitions are
allowed;
* XmlAttribute: Marks the field to be rendered as an attribute of the
xml representation of the parent object;
* XmlElement: Marks the field to be rendered as a child element of
the xml representation of the parent object;
* XmlArray: Is a particular type of element since it marks a field to
be rendered as an Array of elements of a certain type.
FEATURES
* FXB-001 Support for object namespacing
* FXB-002 Xml alias
* FXB-003 Ignore a field on serialization, deserialization or both
* FXB-010 Allow custom object (de)serialization
* FXB-005 Integrate model object cache to insure object uniqueness
* FXB-004 Serialize partial object
* FXB-008 Custom to and from string conversion for simple types
* FXB-012 Add getFromCache option for deserializing complex fields
* FXB-014 Add events to signal processing start and finish
* FXB-015 Xml Service
* FXB-009 Use paths in xml aliases
* FXB-016 Annotation API
* FXB-017 Constructor Annotation
* FXB-018 Multiple namespace support
* FXB-019 Annotation versioning
* FXB-020 Circular reference handling
* FXB-021 Serialization format support
* FXB-022 JSON serialization support
USAGE
The main access point from the 1.x version,
com.googlecode.serializer.flexxb.FlexXBEngine, is deprecated in FlexXB
2.x. However, for compatibility reasons this class is still available;
it will only work for xml serialization and provide the same methods
as in previous versions. Do not use FlexXBEngine class if you need to
support a new serialization format.
* Using built-in XML serialization
To get the serializer to be used in xml handling:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer() :
IFlexXB
To serialize an object to xml:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().serialize(object)
To deserialize a received xml to an object, given the object's class:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().deserialize(xml,
class)
To get the configuration for the xml serializer. One may need to
convert the configuration instance to its true type,
com.googlecode.flexxb.xml.XmlConfiguration in order to access all
settings:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().configuration
To do an early processing of class types required for deserialization
so as not to have problems when classes are not known:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().processTypes(...args) :
void
To register a custom annotation:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().context.registerAnnotation(name,
annotationClass, serializerClass, overrideExisting)
To register a class type converter:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().context.registerSimpleTypeConverter(converterInstance,
overrideExisting)
In order to register a class descriptor created via the FlexXB API for
classes that cannot be accessed in order to add annotations:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.api.processTypeDescriptor(apiTypeDescriptor)
To provide an API descriptor file content in which the class
descriptors are depicted in an XML format:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.api.processDescriptorsFromXml(xml)
* Customizing serialization format
To create a description context, the core of your custom
serialization, extend com.googlecode.flexxb.core.DescriptionContext.
Overridable methods:
•protected function performInitialization() : void - Initialize your
context registering annotations, serializers and converters you need.
You should set the configuration object extending
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.Configuration if you require special
settings.
•public function handleDescriptors(descriptors : Array) : void - Once
a new type has been processed, the context has the chance to handle
the descriptors in order to construct internal structures it may need
(for example, in handling XML, determine the type by the namespace
used).
•public function getIncomingType(source : Object) : Class - Determine
the object type associated with the incoming serialized form at
runtime. It is recommended that you override this method in subclasses
because each serialization format has different ways of determining
the type of the object to be used in deserialization.
To register the new serialization format context:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.registerDescriptionContext(name :
String, context : DescriptionContext) : void
To get the associated serializer:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getSerializer(name :
String) : IFlexXB
To serialize an object to the custom format:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getSerializer(name :
String).serialize(object)
To deserialize a received data in a custom format to an object, given
the object's class:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getSerializer(name :
String).deserialize(xml, class)
* Using the api
In order to register a class descriptor created via the FlexXB API for
classes that cannot be accessed in order to add annotations:
com.googlecode.serializer.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.api.processTypeDescriptor(apiTypeDescriptor)
To provide an API descriptor file content in which the class
descriptors are depicted in an XML format:
com.googlecode.serializer.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.api.processDescriptorsFromXml(xml)
!NOTE!: Make sure you add the following switches to your compiler
settings:
-keep-as3-metadata XmlClass -keep-as3-metadata XmlAttribute -keep-
as3-metadata XmlElement -keep-as3-metadata XmlArray -keep-as3-metadata
ConstructorArg -keep-as3-metadata Namespace
Annotation syntax:
XmlClass
[XmlClass(alias="MyClass", useNamespaceFrom="elementFieldName",
idField="idFieldName", prefix="my", uri="http://www.your.site.com/
schema/", defaultValueField="fieldName", ordered="true|false",
version="version_Name")]
ConstructorArg
[ConstructorArg(reference="element", optional="true|false")]
Namespace
[Namespace(prefix="NS_Prefix", uri="NS_Uri")]
XmlAttribute
[XmlAttribute(alias="attribute", ignoreOn="serialize|deserialize",
order="order_index", namespace="NameSpace_Prefix", idref="true|false",
version="version_Name")]
XmlElement
[XmlElement(alias="element", getFromCache="true|false",
ignoreOn="serialize|deserialize", serializePartialElement="true|
false", order="order_index", getRuntimeType="true|false",
namespace="NameSpace_Prefix", idref="true|false", setXsiType="true|
false", version="version_Name")]
XmlArray
[XmlArray(alias="element", memberName="NameOfArrayElement",
getFromCache="true|false", type="my.full.type" ignoreOn="serialize|
deserialize", serializePartialElement="true|false",
getRuntimeType="true|false", order="index",
namespace="NameSpace_Prefix", setXsiType="true|false",
version="version_Name", idref="true|false")]
Note: Using as alias "*" on a field will force the serializer to
serialize that field using an alias computed at runtime by the
runtime type of the field's value, except for XmlArray. For XmlArray
using the "*" alias will cause the members of the array value
to be rendered as children of the owner object xml rather than
children of an xml element specifying the array. For XmlArray,
setting
getRuntimeType flag to true will cause the engine to analyse each item
in the xml representation of the array and determine the type
of it from the name tag or namespace.
KNOWN LIMITATIONS
- If an object's field has values of subtypes of the field's type and
the alias is set to "*" then the deserialization process will
return null for that field.
RELEASE NOTES
2.2.0 - 27-06-2011
- Usability: added metadata.xml annotation descriptor file in the
swc to use FlashBuilder's support for annotation code hints
- Fix: Issue 47: Serializable#deserialize return object is not used
- Fix: Issue 48: The local namespace (xmlns="") is not considered
2.1.0 - 08-04-2011
- Fix: Issue 41: Release build of the SWC loses all argument names/
description
- NoChangeRequired: Issue 40: Issue While Adding Namespace to
ArrayElement
- Enhancement: Issue 43: Add virtual path support for XmlClass
alias
- Fix: Issue 44: Configuration instance mismatch between the
context and serializers
- Enhancement: Issue 45: Configuration instance mismatch between
the context and serializers
- Fix: Issue 46: Namespace issue
2.0.1 - 20-02-2011
- Fix: Issue 38 - XmlArray getFromCache idref deserialisation bug
when a cacheProvider isn't set via configuration
- Fix: Issue 39 - registerSimpleTypeConverter ignored during
deserialisation in flexXB 2.0
2.0 - 09-01-2011
- Feature: FXB-21 - Serialization format support
1.7.1 - 01-11-2010
- Enhancement: Issue 32 - Allow xml version to be picked up
automatically
- Enhancement: Issue 33 - Support typed vectors in XmlArray
metadata
- Fix: Issue 31 - Provide a better and more reliable error handling
mechanism
1.7.0 - 23-10-2010
- Feature: Issue 25, FXB-020 - Circular reference handling
- Enhancement: Issue 5 - Allow the user to specify a name that will
be used for sending a sub-object that will be rendered as an Element
only as an ID
- Feature: FXB-019 - Annotation versioning
1.6.3 - 15-09-2010
- Fix: Issue 29 - Namespace prefix output on deserialize is
incorrect
1.6.2 - 27-06-2010
- Fix: Issue 26 - Xml fields get serialized in escaped chars
- Fix: Issue 27 - Xml fields are not correctly deserialized if the
value only contains an inline element
- Fix: Issue 28 - Array of simple typed items without wrapping
elements is not deserialized correctly
1.6.1-R2 - 24-05-2010
- Changed the licensing scheme to Apache License v2.0
- Upgraded the unit testing to Flex Unit 4
1.6.1 - 20-04-2010
- Enhancement: Issue 22: Add the ability to specify a default value
upon deserialization
- Enhancement: Issue 23: Add logging support
1.6 - 26-03-2010
- Support for Flex 4 SDK
- Fix: Proper null check in PersistableList and XmlArraySerializer
1.5 - 15-03-2010
- Fix: Issue 19: Problem appears when using a class as a type
provider
- Fix: Issue 20: FlexXB API fails if using xml description file
- Fix: Issue 21: Remove singleton restrictions on FlexXBEngine
- Fix: Make escape by using CDATA wraper tags; make escaping
configurable (escape special tags vs using CDAYA wrapper tags)
- Fix: Fixed NPE issue when using the isAdded/isRemove/isMoved
methods in PersistableList
1.4.1 - 28-12-2009
- Enhancement: Issue 17, FXB-018: Multiple namespaces per class
definition - Added Namespace annotation
- Fix: Issue 18: Fields of type xml are not deserialized correctly
- Fix: The API Array member would not properly set memberType when
retrieving the xml descriptor
- Fix: When using virtual paths along with namespaces (class or
member namespace), the namespace was not embedded in the virtual
elements.
1.4 - 01-10-2009
- Fix: Issue 16 - Support Array of int or Number
- Enhancement: Persistence: Added watch referenced fields feature to
PersistableObject
- Enhancement: Persistence: Added exclude field from listening
feature to PersistableObject
- Fix: Persistence: Fixed issues with PersistableList handling
changes within
- Enhancement: Persistence: Updated PersistableList to allow easy
access to changed items
1.3 - 20-07-2009
- Fix: Issue 13 - IXmlSerializable not working...
- Fix: Issue 14 - Add support for namepaced class fields
- Fix: Issue 15 - Not all XmlClass annotation attributes are covered
in api
- Enhancement: Added getRuntimeType flag to XmlElement to get the
deserialization field type on the fly
- Enhancement: ReferenceList
1.2 - 20-06-2009
- Fix 11: Issue 11 - Error in library 1.1 ,mx.managers:ISystemManager
does not implements interface mx.managers:ISystemManager
- Feature: FXB-017 - Constructor Annotation
- Enhancement: PersistableObject
- Enhancement: API components business rules are enforced;
- Fix: corrected parsing of API xml configuration file
1.1 - 01-05-2009
- Fix: Issue 10 - Allow serialization of read-only properties
- Enhancement/Feature: Issue 6 - Include support for serializing
objects that can't be decorated with Flexxb annotations
FXB-016 Annotation API
- Fix: Issue 9 - Still possible to have escaping problems
1.0.1 - 03-04-2009
- Fix: Issue 7 - Order annotation on XmlMember and Ordered on
XmlClass (http://code.google.com/p/flexxb/issues/detail?id=7)
- Fix: Issue 8 - Escape characters (http://code.google.com/p/flexxb/
issues/detail?id=8)
- Other small fixes.
1.0 - 24-03-2009
- Enhancement (Issue 4) - Add support for having text elements in a
serialized object
- Feature: FXB-009 Use paths in xml aliases
- Enhancement - Get object type to deserialize into by the xml
namespace
- Changed the name of the entry point class to FlexXBEngine
1.0 beta - 10-11-2008
- Feature: FXB-005 Integrate model object cache to insure object
uniqueness
- Feature: FXB-004 Serialize partial object
- Feature: FXB-008 Custom to and from string conversion for simple
types
- Feature: FXB-012 Add getFromCache option for deserializing complex
fields
- Feature: FXB-014 Add events to signal processing start and finish
- Feature: FXB-015 Xml Service (preview)
- Fix: Fields of type XML are not correctly (de)serialized
1.0 alpha - 01-10-2008
First alpha release.
version brings a couple of fixes/enhancements to the library.
First off, we now have a metadata.xml descriptor file for all FlexXB
annotations; this will probably save you a bunch of time by showing
you the available options right in the FlashBuilder IDE thanks to
their neat way of parsing the xml descriptor. I've been pondering at
some point on writing an eclipse plug-in to do just that but Adobe
saved me from this :D.
The second change is at namespace references in xml member
annotations. Now you can use "" (empty string) when setting namespace
attribute for the annotation and make the engine use the local
namespace. This is useful when your class has a global namespace
defined in the XmlClass annotation but some fields require the local
one (or none).
The third change involves the custom serialization. When you implement
ISerializable, upon deserialization your method needs to return a
reference to the object that was deserialized. Most times it's "this"
but when it's not, meaning you create a new object to deserialize
within the method, the engine will return you the old reference
instead of the new one.
This should be it for now. Should you have problems with the release
I'll be around :). Until next time!
Enjoy,
Alex
P.S: As usual, below you can find the readme file content:
/
*******************************************************************************************************/
/** FlexXB version 2.2.0 (27-06-2011) **/
/** by Alex Ciobanu **/
/
*******************************************************************************************************/
Copyright 2008 - 2011 Alex Ciobanu (http://code.google.com/p/flexxb)
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
CONTENTS
FlexXB-2_2_0-27062011-bin.zip - contains the FlexXB library along with
the test application
/bin/ - SWC file and test application directory
/bin/test/ - the test application
/bin/flexunit - flexunit automated test reports
/bin/api-schema - XSD schema defining the structure of
the XML file that describes types that can't be annotated
/doc/ - ASDOC
/samples/ - samples showing FlexXB features
/README.txt - version release notes
FlexXB-2_2_0-27062011-src.zip - contains source files
/FlexXB/ - FlexXB project sources
/FlexXBTest - FlexXB test application sources
DESCRIPTION
FlexXB is an ActionScript library designed to automate the AS3
objects' serialization to XML to be sent to a backend server
and the xml deserialization into AS3 objects of a response received
from that server.
In order for FlexXB to be able to automate the (de)serialization
process, the model objects involved must be "decorated" with
AS3 metadata tags that will instruct it on how they should be
processed:
* Which object fields translate into xml attributes, which into xml
elements and which should be ignored?
* Should we use namespaces to build the request xml and parse the
response one? If so, what are the namespaces?
* The object's fields need to have different names in the xml
representation?
All this information is linked to the object by adding metadata tags
(annotations - in Java - or attributes - in .NET) to the
class definition of the object in question.
When an object is passed to it for serialization, it inspects the
object's definition and extracts a list of annotations
describing the way an object of that type needs to be (de)serialized.
It keeps the generated list in a cache in order to
reuse it if need arises and then builds the corresponding XML using
the information provided by the annotations. Any object
field that does not have an annotation defined is ignored in the
(de)serialization process of that object.
There are five built-in annotations for describing object
serialization, one being class-scoped, the other field-scoped:
* XmlClass: Defines class's namespace (by uri and prefix) and xml
alias;
* ConstructorArg: Defines the arguments with which the constructor
should be run. Applies to classes with non default constructors and is
defined at the same level with XmlXClass;
* Namespace: defines alternate namespaces used by elements of the
class. It is defined at class level and multiple definitions are
allowed;
* XmlAttribute: Marks the field to be rendered as an attribute of the
xml representation of the parent object;
* XmlElement: Marks the field to be rendered as a child element of
the xml representation of the parent object;
* XmlArray: Is a particular type of element since it marks a field to
be rendered as an Array of elements of a certain type.
FEATURES
* FXB-001 Support for object namespacing
* FXB-002 Xml alias
* FXB-003 Ignore a field on serialization, deserialization or both
* FXB-010 Allow custom object (de)serialization
* FXB-005 Integrate model object cache to insure object uniqueness
* FXB-004 Serialize partial object
* FXB-008 Custom to and from string conversion for simple types
* FXB-012 Add getFromCache option for deserializing complex fields
* FXB-014 Add events to signal processing start and finish
* FXB-015 Xml Service
* FXB-009 Use paths in xml aliases
* FXB-016 Annotation API
* FXB-017 Constructor Annotation
* FXB-018 Multiple namespace support
* FXB-019 Annotation versioning
* FXB-020 Circular reference handling
* FXB-021 Serialization format support
* FXB-022 JSON serialization support
USAGE
The main access point from the 1.x version,
com.googlecode.serializer.flexxb.FlexXBEngine, is deprecated in FlexXB
2.x. However, for compatibility reasons this class is still available;
it will only work for xml serialization and provide the same methods
as in previous versions. Do not use FlexXBEngine class if you need to
support a new serialization format.
* Using built-in XML serialization
To get the serializer to be used in xml handling:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer() :
IFlexXB
To serialize an object to xml:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().serialize(object)
To deserialize a received xml to an object, given the object's class:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().deserialize(xml,
class)
To get the configuration for the xml serializer. One may need to
convert the configuration instance to its true type,
com.googlecode.flexxb.xml.XmlConfiguration in order to access all
settings:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().configuration
To do an early processing of class types required for deserialization
so as not to have problems when classes are not known:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().processTypes(...args) :
void
To register a custom annotation:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().context.registerAnnotation(name,
annotationClass, serializerClass, overrideExisting)
To register a class type converter:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getXmlSerializer().context.registerSimpleTypeConverter(converterInstance,
overrideExisting)
In order to register a class descriptor created via the FlexXB API for
classes that cannot be accessed in order to add annotations:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.api.processTypeDescriptor(apiTypeDescriptor)
To provide an API descriptor file content in which the class
descriptors are depicted in an XML format:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.api.processDescriptorsFromXml(xml)
* Customizing serialization format
To create a description context, the core of your custom
serialization, extend com.googlecode.flexxb.core.DescriptionContext.
Overridable methods:
•protected function performInitialization() : void - Initialize your
context registering annotations, serializers and converters you need.
You should set the configuration object extending
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.Configuration if you require special
settings.
•public function handleDescriptors(descriptors : Array) : void - Once
a new type has been processed, the context has the chance to handle
the descriptors in order to construct internal structures it may need
(for example, in handling XML, determine the type by the namespace
used).
•public function getIncomingType(source : Object) : Class - Determine
the object type associated with the incoming serialized form at
runtime. It is recommended that you override this method in subclasses
because each serialization format has different ways of determining
the type of the object to be used in deserialization.
To register the new serialization format context:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.registerDescriptionContext(name :
String, context : DescriptionContext) : void
To get the associated serializer:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getSerializer(name :
String) : IFlexXB
To serialize an object to the custom format:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getSerializer(name :
String).serialize(object)
To deserialize a received data in a custom format to an object, given
the object's class:
com.googlecode.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.getSerializer(name :
String).deserialize(xml, class)
* Using the api
In order to register a class descriptor created via the FlexXB API for
classes that cannot be accessed in order to add annotations:
com.googlecode.serializer.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.api.processTypeDescriptor(apiTypeDescriptor)
To provide an API descriptor file content in which the class
descriptors are depicted in an XML format:
com.googlecode.serializer.flexxb.core.FxBEngine.instance.api.processDescriptorsFromXml(xml)
!NOTE!: Make sure you add the following switches to your compiler
settings:
-keep-as3-metadata XmlClass -keep-as3-metadata XmlAttribute -keep-
as3-metadata XmlElement -keep-as3-metadata XmlArray -keep-as3-metadata
ConstructorArg -keep-as3-metadata Namespace
Annotation syntax:
XmlClass
[XmlClass(alias="MyClass", useNamespaceFrom="elementFieldName",
idField="idFieldName", prefix="my", uri="http://www.your.site.com/
schema/", defaultValueField="fieldName", ordered="true|false",
version="version_Name")]
ConstructorArg
[ConstructorArg(reference="element", optional="true|false")]
Namespace
[Namespace(prefix="NS_Prefix", uri="NS_Uri")]
XmlAttribute
[XmlAttribute(alias="attribute", ignoreOn="serialize|deserialize",
order="order_index", namespace="NameSpace_Prefix", idref="true|false",
version="version_Name")]
XmlElement
[XmlElement(alias="element", getFromCache="true|false",
ignoreOn="serialize|deserialize", serializePartialElement="true|
false", order="order_index", getRuntimeType="true|false",
namespace="NameSpace_Prefix", idref="true|false", setXsiType="true|
false", version="version_Name")]
XmlArray
[XmlArray(alias="element", memberName="NameOfArrayElement",
getFromCache="true|false", type="my.full.type" ignoreOn="serialize|
deserialize", serializePartialElement="true|false",
getRuntimeType="true|false", order="index",
namespace="NameSpace_Prefix", setXsiType="true|false",
version="version_Name", idref="true|false")]
Note: Using as alias "*" on a field will force the serializer to
serialize that field using an alias computed at runtime by the
runtime type of the field's value, except for XmlArray. For XmlArray
using the "*" alias will cause the members of the array value
to be rendered as children of the owner object xml rather than
children of an xml element specifying the array. For XmlArray,
setting
getRuntimeType flag to true will cause the engine to analyse each item
in the xml representation of the array and determine the type
of it from the name tag or namespace.
KNOWN LIMITATIONS
- If an object's field has values of subtypes of the field's type and
the alias is set to "*" then the deserialization process will
return null for that field.
RELEASE NOTES
2.2.0 - 27-06-2011
- Usability: added metadata.xml annotation descriptor file in the
swc to use FlashBuilder's support for annotation code hints
- Fix: Issue 47: Serializable#deserialize return object is not used
- Fix: Issue 48: The local namespace (xmlns="") is not considered
2.1.0 - 08-04-2011
- Fix: Issue 41: Release build of the SWC loses all argument names/
description
- NoChangeRequired: Issue 40: Issue While Adding Namespace to
ArrayElement
- Enhancement: Issue 43: Add virtual path support for XmlClass
alias
- Fix: Issue 44: Configuration instance mismatch between the
context and serializers
- Enhancement: Issue 45: Configuration instance mismatch between
the context and serializers
- Fix: Issue 46: Namespace issue
2.0.1 - 20-02-2011
- Fix: Issue 38 - XmlArray getFromCache idref deserialisation bug
when a cacheProvider isn't set via configuration
- Fix: Issue 39 - registerSimpleTypeConverter ignored during
deserialisation in flexXB 2.0
2.0 - 09-01-2011
- Feature: FXB-21 - Serialization format support
1.7.1 - 01-11-2010
- Enhancement: Issue 32 - Allow xml version to be picked up
automatically
- Enhancement: Issue 33 - Support typed vectors in XmlArray
metadata
- Fix: Issue 31 - Provide a better and more reliable error handling
mechanism
1.7.0 - 23-10-2010
- Feature: Issue 25, FXB-020 - Circular reference handling
- Enhancement: Issue 5 - Allow the user to specify a name that will
be used for sending a sub-object that will be rendered as an Element
only as an ID
- Feature: FXB-019 - Annotation versioning
1.6.3 - 15-09-2010
- Fix: Issue 29 - Namespace prefix output on deserialize is
incorrect
1.6.2 - 27-06-2010
- Fix: Issue 26 - Xml fields get serialized in escaped chars
- Fix: Issue 27 - Xml fields are not correctly deserialized if the
value only contains an inline element
- Fix: Issue 28 - Array of simple typed items without wrapping
elements is not deserialized correctly
1.6.1-R2 - 24-05-2010
- Changed the licensing scheme to Apache License v2.0
- Upgraded the unit testing to Flex Unit 4
1.6.1 - 20-04-2010
- Enhancement: Issue 22: Add the ability to specify a default value
upon deserialization
- Enhancement: Issue 23: Add logging support
1.6 - 26-03-2010
- Support for Flex 4 SDK
- Fix: Proper null check in PersistableList and XmlArraySerializer
1.5 - 15-03-2010
- Fix: Issue 19: Problem appears when using a class as a type
provider
- Fix: Issue 20: FlexXB API fails if using xml description file
- Fix: Issue 21: Remove singleton restrictions on FlexXBEngine
- Fix: Make escape by using CDATA wraper tags; make escaping
configurable (escape special tags vs using CDAYA wrapper tags)
- Fix: Fixed NPE issue when using the isAdded/isRemove/isMoved
methods in PersistableList
1.4.1 - 28-12-2009
- Enhancement: Issue 17, FXB-018: Multiple namespaces per class
definition - Added Namespace annotation
- Fix: Issue 18: Fields of type xml are not deserialized correctly
- Fix: The API Array member would not properly set memberType when
retrieving the xml descriptor
- Fix: When using virtual paths along with namespaces (class or
member namespace), the namespace was not embedded in the virtual
elements.
1.4 - 01-10-2009
- Fix: Issue 16 - Support Array of int or Number
- Enhancement: Persistence: Added watch referenced fields feature to
PersistableObject
- Enhancement: Persistence: Added exclude field from listening
feature to PersistableObject
- Fix: Persistence: Fixed issues with PersistableList handling
changes within
- Enhancement: Persistence: Updated PersistableList to allow easy
access to changed items
1.3 - 20-07-2009
- Fix: Issue 13 - IXmlSerializable not working...
- Fix: Issue 14 - Add support for namepaced class fields
- Fix: Issue 15 - Not all XmlClass annotation attributes are covered
in api
- Enhancement: Added getRuntimeType flag to XmlElement to get the
deserialization field type on the fly
- Enhancement: ReferenceList
1.2 - 20-06-2009
- Fix 11: Issue 11 - Error in library 1.1 ,mx.managers:ISystemManager
does not implements interface mx.managers:ISystemManager
- Feature: FXB-017 - Constructor Annotation
- Enhancement: PersistableObject
- Enhancement: API components business rules are enforced;
- Fix: corrected parsing of API xml configuration file
1.1 - 01-05-2009
- Fix: Issue 10 - Allow serialization of read-only properties
- Enhancement/Feature: Issue 6 - Include support for serializing
objects that can't be decorated with Flexxb annotations
FXB-016 Annotation API
- Fix: Issue 9 - Still possible to have escaping problems
1.0.1 - 03-04-2009
- Fix: Issue 7 - Order annotation on XmlMember and Ordered on
XmlClass (http://code.google.com/p/flexxb/issues/detail?id=7)
- Fix: Issue 8 - Escape characters (http://code.google.com/p/flexxb/
issues/detail?id=8)
- Other small fixes.
1.0 - 24-03-2009
- Enhancement (Issue 4) - Add support for having text elements in a
serialized object
- Feature: FXB-009 Use paths in xml aliases
- Enhancement - Get object type to deserialize into by the xml
namespace
- Changed the name of the entry point class to FlexXBEngine
1.0 beta - 10-11-2008
- Feature: FXB-005 Integrate model object cache to insure object
uniqueness
- Feature: FXB-004 Serialize partial object
- Feature: FXB-008 Custom to and from string conversion for simple
types
- Feature: FXB-012 Add getFromCache option for deserializing complex
fields
- Feature: FXB-014 Add events to signal processing start and finish
- Feature: FXB-015 Xml Service (preview)
- Fix: Fields of type XML are not correctly (de)serialized
1.0 alpha - 01-10-2008
First alpha release.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages