Creating, Retrieving and Updating Properties 

The diagram shows the interfaces and classes that play a role when you work with properties. Properties have a name (IPropertyName), type (PropertyType), some attributes, a description and a value.

Interfaces and Classes

The name of a property defines its identity. It is comprised of an optional XML namespace and a local name: {namespace}local name. For example,

{http://sapportals.com/xmlns/cm}displayname

Creating a Property

The code extract shows how to set a new property. A property always needs a value, otherwise it does not exist. You therefore cannot assign null as the value of a property.

boolean value = true;

IProperty property = new Property(propertyName, value);

resource.setProperty(property);

Retrieving a Property

The code sample shows how to retrieve an existing property:

String namespace = “http://sample.com/xmlns/sample”;

String name = “property”;

IPropertyName propertyName = new PropertyName(namespace, name);

IProperty property = resource.getProperty(propertyName);

if(property != null) {

    // property exists

    String value = property.getValueAsString();

} else {

    // property is not set for this resource

}

Updating a Property

To update a property you have retrieved, you use IMutableProperty. The code sample changes the value of the boolean property to true. If there is a type mismatch, for example, when a string value is assigned to an integer property, a ResourceException is thrown.

If live properties are involved, an update might cause side effects or throw exceptions.

Determining the Property Types

It is sometimes useful to know the property type, for example, before executing sort operations or manipulating property values. The code extract shows how to determine the property type.