com.smartgwt.client.docs.serverds

Class AdvancedCriteria

java.lang.Object

com.smartgwt.client.docs.serverds.AdvancedCriteria

public class AdvancedCriteria
extends java.lang.Object

AdvancedCriteria is a format for representing search criteria which may include operators on field values such as "less than", or may include sub-clauses such as several criteria applied to fields joined by an "OR" operator.

This class is not meant to be created and used, it is actually documentation of settings allowed in a DataSource descriptor (.ds.xml file), for use with Smart GWT Pro Edition and above. See com.smartgwt.client.docs.serverds for how to use this documentation.

Smart GWT DataSources can use AdvancedCriteria to search a list of Records, and the Smart GWT Java Server can translate AdvancedCriteria to either SQL or Hibernate queries (Note: The server-side AdvancedCriteria handling feature is only available with the Power and Enterprise Editions of Smart GWT; the Pro Edition is limited to ordinary criteria handling on the server side).

If the entire dataset is cached locally, Smart GWT can perform AdvancedCriteria filtering on the client, avoiding a server call.

AdvancedCriteria objects can be created directly in java. For example:

  AdvancedCriteria criteria = new AdvancedCriteria(OperatorId.AND, new Criterion[]{
      new Criterion("salary", OperatorId.LESS_THAN, 80000),
      new AdvancedCriteria(OperatorId.OR, new Criterion[]{
          new Criterion("title", OperatorId.ICONTAINS, "Manager"),
          new Criterion("reports", OperatorId.NOT_NULL)
      })
  });
  

In addition to building a raw AdvancedCriteria object as described above, the DataSource.convertCriteria() and DataSource.combineCriteria() methods may be used to create and modify criteria based on simple fieldName / value mappings.

When passed to the Smart GWT Server, a server-side AdvancedCriteria instance (in the package com.isomorphic.criteria) can be retrieved from a DSRequest via com.isomorphic.datasource.DSRequest.getAdvancedCriteria(). These same AdvancedCriteria objects can be directly created server side, and applied to a DSRequest via setAdvancedCriteria().

RestDataSource, the recommended way of integration with servers that are not running the Smart GWT Server Framework, defines a standard XML and JSON serialization of AdvancedCriteria. Date, DateTime and Time values use the same XML Schema representation used for other XML serialization like RestDataSource. Further details can be found at DateFormatAndStorage.

It's a best practice for XML representation to have <value> as a subelement with xsi:type. Although most systems will auto-convert criteria explicitly setting type leaves the least room for error or ambiguity.

For other servers, you can translate AdvancedCriteria into whatever format is expected by the server, typically by implementing DataSource.transformRequest().

The internal representation of AdvancedCriteria is a simple JavaScript structure, available via AdvancedCriteria.getJsObj():

  // an AdvancedCriteria
  {
      _constructor:"AdvancedCriteria",
      operator:"and",
      criteria:[
          // this is a Criterion
          { fieldName:"salary", operator:"lessThan", value:"80000" },
          { operator:"or", criteria:[
              { fieldName:"title", operator:"iContains", value:"Manager" },
              { fieldName:"reports", operator:"notNull" }
            ]  
          }
      ]
  }
  

And an AdvancedCriteria can also be created from a JavaScriptObject. This makes AdvancedCriteria very easy to store and retrieve as JSON strings, using JSONEncoder. See Criteria Editing for information about editing AdvancedCriteria in a DynamicForm.

When using the Smart GWT Server, AdvancedCriteria created on the client and stored as JSON can be used directly by server code (without involvement of the browser and client-side system). Use the server-side API AdvancedCriteria.decodeClientCriteria() to obtain an AdvancedCriteria that can then be used with a server-created DSRequest object. Note that the client must be serialized by the JSONEncoder class, using JSONEncoder.dateFormat "logicalDateConstructor".

Field Summary

Fields

Modifier and Type	Field and Description
java.lang.Boolean	strictSQLFiltering When set to true, causes filtering using this criteria object to follow SQL99 behavior for dealing with NULL values.

Constructor Summary

Constructors

Constructor and Description
AdvancedCriteria()

Method Summary

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

strictSQLFiltering

public java.lang.Boolean strictSQLFiltering

When set to true, causes filtering using this criteria object to follow SQL99 behavior for dealing with NULL values. See this discussion for more detail.

Default value is null

Constructor Detail

AdvancedCriteria

public AdvancedCriteria()