Hi all,
I just added Java 5.0 annotation support to ObjectDB, following the work that was contributed
by Andy (http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/JDO-403).
Andy did a great job, but still there might be a little room for improvements. Following are
suggestions that might be considered.
1. Using simple annotations instead of complex attributes
For instance:
@PrimaryKey
instead of:
@Field(primaryKey=true)
(or simply @Id as in JPA).
And another example:
@Embedded / @Embedded(false)
Instead of:
@Field(embedded="true") / @Field(embedded="false")
which also solves the need to use boolean as string in order to get a third state, which doesn't
look good.
This could be done at least for the more common attributes.
Also, maybe @Index should be defined without unique option, by:
public @interface Indexed { boolean value() default true; }
or maybe even by:
public @interface Unique {}
and simply used with:
@Indexed
Do we really need so many different methods to define a unique index?
2. Discarding @Array, @Collection and @Map
It seems logical to move the attributes of @Array, @Collection and @Map to @Element, @Key
and @Value. The separation (whose origin is in the XML) is unclear to me.
3. Merging all annotations to one package
Good separation seems to be very difficult. For instance - @Index, which is currently in orm
has both columns and fields as attributes. Fields are not related to orm - just columns. If
the separation remains, at least moving @Index, @Indices, @Unique, @Uniques, @Element, @Key
and @Value that contain also non orm information should be pulled out to the main package.
4. Type attributes should be Class rather than String
For instance, in Field:
Class fieldType();
instead of:
String fieldType() default "";
5. RecursionDepth
Should be added somehow to the fields in @FetchGroup (and removed from @Field if unused).
Regards,
Ilan Kirsh
ObjectDB Software
http://www.objectdb.com
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