[jboss-as7-dev] RFC: Model normalization

[Heiko Braun]

The following are three responses to query server-config resources:
Take a look at the "jvm" property and imagine the number of if-statements
you need to come with to deal with the three different representations.

[INFO] {
[INFO]     "path" : null,
[INFO]     "system-property" : null,
[INFO]     "interface" : null,
[INFO]     "jvm" : {"default" : null},
[INFO]     "name" : "server-one",
[INFO]     "group" : "main-server-group",
[INFO]     "auto-start" : true
[INFO] }


[INFO] {
[INFO]     "path" : null,
[INFO]     "system-property" : null,
[INFO]     "interface" : null,
[INFO]     "jvm" : {"default" : {"heap" : {
[INFO]         "size" : "64m",
[INFO]         "max-size" : "256m"
[INFO]     }}},
[INFO]     "name" : "server-two",
[INFO]     "group" : "main-server-group",
[INFO]     "socket-binding-group" : "standard-sockets",
[INFO]     "socket-binding-port-offset" : -106,
[INFO]     "auto-start" : true
[INFO] }


[INFO] {
[INFO]     "path" : null,
[INFO]     "system-property" : null,
[INFO]     "interface" : null,
[INFO]     "jvm" : null,
[INFO]     "name" : "server-three",
[INFO]     "group" : "other-server-group",
[INFO]     "socket-binding-group" : "standard-sockets",
[INFO]     "socket-binding-port-offset" : -6,
[INFO]     "auto-start" : false
[INFO] }


IMO we need to think thoroughly about the following questions:

- Can the model be normalized somehow?
- How do we deal with inherited properties?
- Would it make sense to separate the actual state from the structural information?

Ike