The ItemCollection
The Imixs ItemCollection is a generic value object used by the Imixs-Workflow API. You can see an ItemCollection as a kind of document which contains a various set of properties (Items). Each Item of an ItemCollection consists of a name and a value. The value of an Item can be any serializeable data object. So an ItemCollection is a very flexible data structure.
Each Workitem processed by the Imixs-Workflow engine is represented by an instance of an ItemCollection. But also other Entities used by the Imixs-Workflow - like the Model Entities - are represented as instances of an ItemCollection. The ItemCollection provides methods which makes it very easy to create, access or modify the properties of an ItemCollection. See the following example:
import org.imixs.workflow.ItemCollection;
ItemCollection myItemCollection=new ItemCollection;
myItemCollection.replaceItemValue("FirstName","Anna");
myItemCollection.replaceItemValue("CostCenter",new Integer(4010));
The method ‘replaceItemValue()’ adds a new Item or replaces the value of an existing item. This code example demonstrates the usage of the replaceItemValue method. The code creates a new empty ItemCollection and adds two new items. The first Item with the name “FirstName” contains a String value and the second item “CostCenter” contains an Integer value.
Getter Methods
The ItemCollection provides different methods to access items values. Some of the methods are type-save and allow to access a value of a specific type. See the following example:
String name=myItemCollection.getItemValueString("FirstName");
int costcenter=myItemCollection.getItemValueInteger("CostCenter");
The following table gives an overview about the getter methods:
| Method | Return Type |
|---|---|
| getItemValueString(name) | String |
| getItemValueInteger(name) | Integer |
| getItemValueDouble(name) | Double |
| getItemValueFloat(name) | Float |
| getItemValueLong(name) | Long |
| getItemValueBoolean(name) | Boolean (true/false) |
| getItemValueDate(name) | Date Object |
Remove Attributes
With the method removeItem an existing Item can be removed from a ItemCollection:
myItemCollection.removeItem("FirstName");
Test Attributes
The ItemCollection provides also methods to test the existence of an Item. See the following table:
| Method | Return |
|---|---|
| hasItem(name) | returns true if an Item with the name exists |
| isItemValueInteger(name) | returns true if the item contains an Integer value |
| isItemValueDouble(name) | returns true if the item contains a Double value |
| isItemValueFloat(name) | returns true if the item contains a Float value |
| isItemValueLong(name) | returns true if the item contains an Long value |
Multivalue Attributes
The value of an Item can also be a value list (multi-value). Multi-values can be added to an ItemCollection in a List object:
List<String> multiValue=new ArrayList<String>();
multiValue.add("Anna");
multiValue.add("John");
myItemCollection.replaceItemValue("team", multiValue);
This code example adds a teamlist with two String values as an item with the Name “team” to an ItemCollection. To access a multi-value list you can use the method getItemValue() which always returns a List of values:
List multiValue=myItemCollection.getItemValue("team");
String name=(String)multiValue.firstElement();
Using the ItemCollection it is possible to store not only basic data types but also any serializable Java Object:
// create a Java HashMap
HashMap hashMap = new HashMap();
hashMap.put( "One", new Integer(1) ); // adding value into HashMap
hashMap.put( "Two", new Integer(2) );
hashMap.put( "Three", new Integer(3) );
// put data object into ItemCollection
myItemCollection.replaceItemValue("MyData", hashMap);
//....
// read hashMap form itemCollection
hashMap = (HashMap) myItemCollection.getItemValue("MyData").firstElement();
As an ItemCollection is not serializable it is not recommanded to store a ItemCollection as a value into another ItemCollection. Instead use the method getAllItems() which returns a serializable Map interface:
ItemCollection teamMember=new ItemCollection();
teamMember.replaceItemValue("name", "Ralph");
teamMember.replaceItemValue("city", "munich");
ItemCollection project=new ItemCollection();
project.replaceItemValue("projectname", "my first workflow project");
// get value map....
project.replaceItemValue("projectManager", teamMember.getAllItems());
In this code example the values of the ItemCollection “teamMemer” are stored as a HashMap into the ItemCollection “project” with is mapped to the item “projectManager”.
Get and Set all Items
With the methods setAllItems() and getAllItems() it is possible to set and get the internal Map ValueObject. See the following example:
// create a Java HashMap
HashMap hashMap = new HashMap();
hashMap.put( "FirstName", "Anna" );
hashMap.put( "CostCenter", new Integer(2222) );
// put data object into ItemCollection
myItemCollection = new ItemCollection();
myItemCollection.setAllItems(hashMap);
// read value
String firstname=myItemCollection.getItemValueString("firstname");
Accessing Workflow Data
The ItemCollection provides convenience methods to access typical attributes of a process iInstance. See the following table:
| Method | Return |
|---|---|
| getType() | returns the type attribute of a workitem |
| getProcessID() | returns the $processID attribute of a workitem |
| getActivityID() | returns the $activityID attribute of an workitem |
| setActivityID(id) | set the $activityID attribute of a workitem |
| getModelVersion() | returns the $modelversion attribute of a workitem |
| getUniqueID() | returns the $uniqueid attribute of a workitem |
For more information see the javaDoc.
