Thoughts on ways to enhance the Post Processing Model

Current Model

  • When a POST occurs the Sling Main Servlet hands off the processing of the POST method to the POST processor
  • The post processor checks to see the type of operation that has been defined on the POST
  • If the POST processor has a handler for the operation it hands off the processing to the org.apache.sling.servlets.post.PostOperation implementation that handles that operation
    • If No Operation has been defined it the POST Processor called the ModifyOperation Which is the default operation
    • Each PostOperation implements the method run(SlingHttpServletRequest request, PostResponse response, SlingPostProcessor[] processors)
      • Each SlingPostProcessor implements process(SlingHttpServletRequest request, List<Modification> changes)

 

High level thoughts

The post processors are defined so that custom  operations can be implemented by an implementer.

  • SlingPostProcessor are the main interface that most developers utilize
  • PostOperations receive an array of potential Processors which may, or may not be applied.
  • Each SlingPostProcessor is given a List of previous modifications.

The List of modifications, may or may not reflect any changes that have taken place as part of a series of SlingPostProcessor interactions. Any changes that occur in a Processor SHOULD be reflected in the list, but the list itself is utilized as an abstraction for reporting.

Concerns

No guarantee of accuracy

PostResponse is populated with what the Operation believes should be sent as a response. If the Operation is accurately trying to reflect what was modified it would use the List of modifications which it receives after calling all of the SlingPostProcessors which in themselves do not guarantee an accurate reporting of everything that was modified.

Why is this a problem? Let's say I want to have add a SlingPostProcessor that does one of the following

  1. Record any changes that are made to the underlying repository
  2. Prevent a certain type value or property from being created
  3. Expect the List<Modification> to correctly reflect changes up until that moment

Replication of Work

Each SlingPostProcessor and each PostOperation is responsible for modifying the repository. ** expound on this **

Possible Solution

Change the List<Modification> from a list of what occurred to a list of what needs to be done. This would have the Post Operation iterate through the Post Processors and then, as a final step, take the list of modifications and execute those steps to the ResourceProvider.

Benefits

  • modification of the repository occurs after all processes have had their say
  • Simplifies SlingPostProcessor as it just needs to focus on logic
  • Allow for guard rails that can occur as the list would be a true reflection of will be changed
  • Improved separation of ResourceProvider and JCR

Issues

A modification may not want to be transmitted back to the end requestor. If I have a service which is tracking changes, I may not want the data that I am adding be reported back. Therefore the Modification object should be able to track whether the modification should be reported

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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