[hibernate-dev] [BV] New Path API

[Hardy Ferentschik]

Hi,

I was integrating the new Path API into Hibernate Validator and here are  
some thoughts about it.

#1 Would it be worth to have a getLeafNode() method in the API. In many  
cases you need that the leaf
    and the only way to get to it at the moment is to use the Iterator. It  
would also help for my second point

#2 TraversableResolver.isReachable and TraversableResolver.isCascadable  
both take in their current version a
    Node (the leaf) and a Path (the parent path) as parameter. Why not just  
pass a Path instance. Together
    with getLeafNode() we would almost have everything we need ;-)

#3 The Path API only specifies methods to iterate existing Path instances.  
But at some stage one has to build
    these path instances as well. Since the API does not have a  
Path.addNode() (or similar) I am forced to use
    the Hibernate Validator specific PathImpl all over the place. Wouldn't  
it make sense to also add addNode()
    to the interface?

Even though ErrorBuilder pattern in ConstraintValidatorContext is quite  
nice and the API allows now for proper
validating of Maps, there are still some semantic gaps in the overall API.  
For example, Validator.validateValue
and Validator.validateProperty both take a String repesentation of the  
property to be validated. If the validation
fails the returned ConstraintValidationException contains however a Path  
instance describing the property path.
This makes it quite hard to compare the input property with the property  
in the ConstraintViolation.

I am not 100% convinced by this new Path API yet. As an internal data  
structure yes, but if it should be part of the
official API - not sure.

--Hardy