Currently, predicates/sorts/etc. can be re-used by calling .toPredicate()/toSort()/etc. on the terminal context in the DSL. The user gets a SearchPredicate/SearchSort/etc. instance that can be reused in multiple queries, even in different threads. But, there are rough edges. First, regarding the API, the name .toPredicate()/toSort()/etc. do not make it clear that you only need to call these methods if you need re-usable objects. In any other case, just passing the terminal DSL context to other methods of the DSL should work fine. On the other hand, if you're using the non-lambda syntax, you probably want to call these methods, even if you don't reuse the objects: the object need to be stored in variables, and having to write down the type of the DSL contexts in your code will be painful. Second, regarding the implementation:
- SearchPredicate/SearchSort/etc. are not actually immutable. They internally store the builders that were used by the DSL, so if you keep a reference to the DSL contexts around, you should be able to change the builders, and thus the SearchPredicate/SearchSort/etc. Maybe we should somehow "freeze" the builders when we build the SearchPredicate/SearchSort/etc., so that trying to call a method on the DSL after that will trigger an exception?
- When reusing a SearchPredicate/SearchSort/etc., we do not check that the search target is compatible with the one the objects were originally created for, beyond the usual technology check (Lucene/Elasticsearch). For example if you create a SearchPredicate while targeting the index book, then you re-use it while targeting the index user, something will eventually go wrong, but we won't detect it. Maybe we should? Ideally, when a SearchPredicate/SearchSort/etc. was created with a target A, and is reused in a target B, we should make sure that B is a subset of A. If we do that, worst case, the fields referenced in the predicate/sort/etc. do not exist, but if they do we are sure they are compatible.
- The DSL contexts can also be reused. They shouldn't be, because they reference objects that are no longer useful once the predicate/sort/etc. is built and should be garbage-collected, but everything will work if you just store the DSL contexts somewhere and re-use them. Maybe we should prevent that somehow?
|