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Using Javascript arrays from profile properties in M2Doc

medini_1059007410

Hello,

Sometimes you might want to access a profile property in M2Doc, which contains multiple elements. That mostly works fine with just accessing the profile property in M2Doc AQL like {m:myObject.user_list_of_elements.name->sep(', ')} (here: as a comma-separated list of names).

In rare cases you might get an error "Couldn't find the 'aqlFeatureAccess(java.lang.Object[],java.lang.String)' service", together with an "[Ljava.lang.Object;" output.

The Attributes view in medini (Context menu of the object in Debug mode > Diagnose > What is this) would also show a value starting with "[Ljava.lang.Object;".

In this case you have a JavaScript Array in that profile property (Derived property with a JavaScript) instead of the normal Java List, which is used by native medini features. Such an array cannot be directly used in M2Doc. Instead, do either:

If you created the profile property yourself and can modify its script, do not just return the array ("output" in this example), but convert it to a Java List as last step: java.util.Arrays.asList(output);
If you cannot change the profile property (e.g. not your own code and you don't want to touch it), then change your access within the .docx M2Doc field (basically converting it on the fly):
- Instead of { m:myObject.user_assets }
- use this: { m:myObject.eval('java.util.Arrays.asList(self.user_assets);') }

I hope that helps.

Happy reporting,

Nils

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medini_1024169437

Nice Nils, maybe we can ease the pain with some dedicated service in the future.

Jan

medini_1059007410

Hi all, since 2024 R1 you can use the M2Doc service .asList() to convert the Javascript array into an AQL collection, i.e. {m:myObject.user_assets.asList()}.

Regards,

Nils

medini_1034789215

Just the next step you may want to take:

Let's say user_list is a derived profile field in medini that you want to report.

If you want to acess a particular element in this list from a M2Doc template, use a regular OCL method: { m:myObject.user_list->at(X) } where X is the index for a desired element from the list (starts from 1)

Regards,

Alex.

medini_1063548292

Hi Nils

I have a question could we offer a native Service to create an Array out of Collection?

Reason is that AQL automatically flattens Sequences within Sequence so it is not possible to group some results properly and use m:for to iterate over the data .
Ther is also no Tuple or ->oclAsSet() ( OCL) so it is difficult to avoid flattening of collected data into one sequence ..

For example I want to collect on DC worksheet and creating a Sequence{comp,failuremodes,effects,SM) in a single m:for statement, Here is just a simple demo to demonstrate the basis of the sequence flattening

m:for dcData | Sequence{1,2,3,4}
->collect(n| Sequence{n, n->asSequence()->including(n*n), n->asSequence()->including(n*n)->including(n*n*n)})

m: dcData->collect(d|d->size().toString().asParagraph().setNumbering(1,0))

m:endfor dcdata

this will result in m:for in a flattened sequence {1,1,1,2,4,8,3,9,27,4,16,64} so the dcData will be only a single object an error is reported for dcData->at(2)

The trick I used is to use eval service for conversion to array si it will not get flattened

m:for dcData | Sequence{1,2,3,4}->collect(n|Sequence{n,n*n,n*n*n}->eval('self.toArray()'))

m: dcData.asList()->collect(d|d->size()).toString().asParagraph().setNumbering(1,0);

m:endfor dcdata

of course it would be better to use it without eval to avoid too many rhino engine calls

PS: this was a very simple example but I have already some complex cases where the prefetching and organizing data in one for is necessary or even when some organized & preformatted data will need to be passed custom m2doc services.

PS2:

i was also thinking about creating a map form AQL so one can eventually use some key,value based data grouping

m:for dcData | Sequence{1,2,3,4}->collect(n|''.emptyMap().put('first',n).put('suqare',n*n).put('cube',n*n*n))

m: dcData.entrySet()->collect(d|(d.key+d.value.toString()).asParagraph().setNumbering(1,0));

m:endfor dcdata

PS3: maybe it is a problem of md2oc only with m:for because I tested the Sequence collected in Sequence in AQL profile property and there it seems to work no flattening is observed

AQL profile porperty 
Sequence{1,2,3,4}->collect(n|Sequence{n,n->asSequence()->including(n*n),n->asSequence()->including(n*n)->including(n*n*n)})
->collect(d|d->size())

Marian

medini_1024169437

Interesting use case Marian, so it seems the AQL for statement is flattening the collection? One never stop learning...

I was also missing the OCL Tuple support in AQL and I wonder why it was never added. How about this: instead of supporting "list to array" we may support Tuples (which in fact could be ararys internally) but a bit more suphisticated.

What do you think? SO we start with a service that can convert a collection into a Tuple. From there on, it is not considered by AQL as a collection anymore but an object. The service then offers a few methods to access the Tuple nicely, also one to convert it back to a collection.

Regards

Jan

medini_1063548292

Hi Jan,

indeed I learned it the hard-way while creating some advanced m2doc constructs

I am still not 100% sure whether it s a AQL for issue or just m2doc m:for translation into the AQL for.
Problem that the pure AQL for is not accessible in a regular AQL property so cannot simply test it out

I think that your direction with Tuples is more or less in line with my final PS ( PS3) where a Map object is very close to a Tuple, having key, value, entrySet, get,put,...

I think this is a good stating plan and of course willing to assist with testing.

Marian

medini_1024169437

I gave it a try to extend our map service (which already supports .key() and .value() for MapEntry objects) and just added, emptyMap(), get(), put() and entrySet() and was able to run your example with small modifications only:

m:for item | Sequence{1,2,3,4}->collect(n|''.emptyMap().put('first',n).put('square',n*n).put('cube',n*n*n))
m: item.entrySet()->collect(d|(d.key() + '=' + d.value().toString()).asParagraph().setNumbering(1,0));
m:endfor

produces this:

What becomes obvious is that maps are not ordered so maybe we can add some support but anyway, message is this is simple and we can add that in the next version.

Jan

medini_1063548292

Amazing Jan,

I tried to aim for a simple update and voila.

Just to make sure and confirm that it actually iterated over 4 items can you just replace .asParagraph().setNumbering(1,0) and use

->sep('\u25CF',';\t','')

Marian

medini_1024169437

Sure, thanks Marian. Will do.

One more thing I figured: it is not AQL that flattens the array, I debugged m2doc evaluator and the for loop gets this as "iterator" in your example:

[1, [1, 1], [1, 1, 1], 2, [2, 4], [2, 4, 8], 3, [3, 9], [3, 9, 27], 4, [4, 16], [4, 16, 64]]

Not exactly what you expected I guess but at least not flattened. Further: also the body is executed per element, so 1 for first entry and [1, 1] for second etc.

So i guess it is the -> collect statement that doe snot work as expected.

Jan

medini_1024169437

Ah, and I forgot to deliver this:

medini_1063548292

Good point regarding the collect Jan!

so I tried a tiny bit and found out that if I wrap the collected sequence into another Sequence then the 'outer' sequence get "destroyed"

Sequence{1,2,3,4}
->collect(n| Sequence{n,n->asSequence()->including(n*n),n->asSequence()->including(n*n)->including(n*n*n)}) 
//results in 
AQL:
[1, [1, 1], [1, 1, 1], 2, [2, 4], [2, 4, 8], 3, [3, 9], [3, 9, 27], 4, [4, 16], [4, 16, 64]]
//using ->size( == 12)
//using ->collect(g|g->size()) 
[1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3]

//FIX adding add kinder-surprise "wrapper" Sequence{..}
Sequence{1,2,3,4}
->collect(n| Sequence{ Sequence{n,n->asSequence()->including(n*n),n->asSequence()->including(n*n)->including(n*n*n)} }) 
})
AQL:
[[1, [1, 1], [1, 1, 1]], [2, [2, 4], [2, 4, 8]], [3, [3, 9], [3, 9, 27]], [4, [4, 16], [4, 16, 64]]]

//using ->size() => 4)
//using ->collect(g|g->size()) 
[3,3, 3, 3]

So thanks Jan for the devil advocate:)

So to summarize it seems like the collect
flattens an "outer" Sequence/OrderedSet and if one wants to
have a Sequence/OrderedSet as a returned object one need to wrap the collect data
in an extra layer of Sequence/OrderedSet()

PS: I though that LinkedHashMap or SortedMap is actually ordered Map so it
should respect the order of the put() statements isn't it or ma I missing
something?

Marian

medini_1024169437

Marian, I am still not sure this can be really called "destroyed". I mean the "collect" function is defined as:

Sequence->collect( x | ... ) : Sequence{Object}

Returns a sequence containing the result of applying "lambda" on all elements contained in the current sequence, maintaining order.

So this the statement:

->collect(g|g->size())

means ->size is called for each element. This is a collection function, when OCL or AQL hit an element which is NOT a collection, they typically wrap it into a single-element collection and call the operation on it, so basically when hitting the first element 1, its wrapped into [1] and ->size() returns 1. The sub collections are handled normally. So the result collection [1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3] looks pretty okay for me.

Something I missed?

Jan

medini_1063548292

Hi Jan,

the ->collect(g|g->size()) is fine.

I was referring to the first ->collect(n|Sequence{...}) where I would expected that the result of applied lambda will be a Sequence{} so result: Sequence{ Sequence{},...,Sequence{}}

But seems like AQL performs a concatenation of the collected results -> flattens the results so that One will not see 4 Sequences but 12instead.

However when I use an extra Seqeunce{} in a first ->collect(n|Sequence{Sequence{...}} }) this will result in returned 4 sequence Objects as I wanted.

Marian

medini_1024169437

I figured hat meanwhile and now got it, thanks Marian.

Jan

medini_1024169437

Just for the sake of completeness. I tested with plain AQL in medini and there the behavior is the same:

And I found the relevant documentation:

QED

medini_1024169437

Marian, the generic Map service will make it to the next major release 2026 R1. Maybe you can confirm that this is fine with your understanding. We will have these new methods:

- emptyMap

- emptyOrderedMap

- put

- get

- entrySet

+ the one already there for Map.EntrySet (key/value)

Anything we are missing?

Jan

medini_1063548292

Thanks Jan for the update!

I was thinking about the actions that are not possible thorough simple AQL and was thinking about:

clear
remove(..)
putAll(Map)

I was also thinking about containsKey, containsValue but in the end I guess it is manageable to het it with tiny AQL like

entrySet().key->includes(key)
entrySet().value->includes(value)

Marian

medini_1024169437

I should have thought about thos from the start! Thanks marian, we of course will add them.

Jan