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## com.bea.content.expression
Class ExpressionHelper

    java.lang.Object
      com.bea.content.expression.ExpressionHelper

    public class ExpressionHelper

extends Object

Helper class to handle dealing with content Expressions.

For details on what content expressions should look like, see `parse()`.

Nested Class Summary
`static class` | `ExpressionHelper.ParseException` Exception to report an error while parsing a query expression.

Field Summary
`static String` | `AND` Syntax textual and logical operator.
`static String` | `CONTAINS` Syntax textual contains operator.
`static String` | `CONTAINS_ALL` Syntax textual contains all operator.
`static String` | `CONTAINS_ANY` Syntax textual contains any operator.
`static String` | `defDateFormatStr` The default datetime format string in the content expression syntax ("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss z").
`static String` | `EQUALS` Syntax textual equals operator.
`static String` | `GREATER_THAN` Syntax textual greater than operator.
`static String` | `GREATER_THAN_EQUALS` Syntax textual greater than or equals operator.
`static String` | `IN` Syntax textual in operator.
`static String` | `LESS_THAN` Syntax textual less than operator.
`static String` | `LESS_THAN_EQUALS` Syntax textual less than or equals operator.
`static String` | `LIKE` Syntax textual like operator.
`static String` | `LIKE_IGNORE_CASE` Syntax textual like (case insensitive) operator.
`static String` | `NOT_EQUALS` Syntax textual not equals operator.
`static String` | `OR` Syntax textual or logical operator.

Constructor Summary
`ExpressionHelper()`

Method Summary
`static Expression` | `convertContainsAnyOperators(Expression expr)` Convert an expression tree to not contain any 'containsany' comparison operators.
`static Expression` | `convertInOperators(Expression expr)` Convert an expression tree to not contain any 'in' comparison operators.
`static String` | `fromStringLiteral(String in)` Convert a String literal (which may contain quoted characters) into a corresponding String value.
`static String` | `getComparator(Expression expr)` Get the syntax comparator textual operator for the given leaf node.
`static String` | `getContentId(Expression expr)` Return the content id from the expression, if it's an expression for a single content object based upon identifier.
`static Search` | `getContentIdSearch(String contentId)` Get a search object for a single content based upon the supplied id.
`static Search` | `getContentPathSearch(ID uid, String version)` Get a search object for a single version based upon the supplied UID and version.
`static Search` | `getContentPathSearch(String contentPath)` Get a search object for a single content based upon the supplied path.
`static PropertyRef` | `getLeftHandSide(Expression expr)` Get the left-hand-side of a valid leaf node, which should be a PropertyRef.
`static String` | `getLogicalComparator(Expression expr)` Get the syntax logical comparator textual operator for the given branch node.
`static int` | `getOrdinalValue(char ch)` Get the ordinal (Unicode) value of a character.
`static Object` | `getRightHandSide(Expression expr)` Get the right-hand-side of a valid leaf node.
`static Expression` | `getSubExpression(Expression expr, int count)` Get a child expression of the specified expression at the count index.
`static boolean` | `isHexString(String str)` Determine if a string contains only ASCII hexidecimal characters ([0-9a-fA-F]).
`static Expression` | `isLogicalNot(Expression expr)` Tell if an expression is really a logical not and, if so, returns the contained expression.
`static boolean` | `isValidBranchNode(Expression expr)` Tell if an expression is a valid content branch node type.
`static boolean` | `isValidLeafNode(Expression expr)` Tell if an expression is a valid content leaf node type.
`static LogicalAnd` | `join(Expression expr1, Expression expr2)` Join together two expression via an AND expression.
`static Expression` | `normalize(Expression expr)` Normalize an Expression.
`static Expression` | `parse(String queryStr)` Convert a query expression string into an Expression object.
`static void` | `print(PrintWriter out, Expression expr)` Print a string representation of the given expression.
`static void` | `printBranchNode(PrintWriter out, Expression expr)` Return a string representation of the given expression branch.
`static void` | `printLeafNode(PrintWriter out, Expression expr)` Return a string representation of the given leaf expression node.
`static Expression` | `realize(Expression expr, PropertyProvider props)` Realize an expression, which can contain property references, into an an expression which contains only literal values and can be sent to a `SearchOps`.
`static String` | `retrievePathFromVersionPath(String path)`
`static String` | `retrieveVersionFromVersionPath(String path)`
`static String` | `toString(Expression expr)` Get a string representation of the given expression.
`static String` | `toStringLiteral(String in)` Get an ASCII String literal from a Java string.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
`clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait`

Field Detail

### defDateFormatStr

    public static final String defDateFormatStr

  The default datetime format string in the content expression syntax ("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss z").

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### EQUALS

    public static final String EQUALS

  Syntax textual equals operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### NOT_EQUALS

    public static final String NOT_EQUALS

  Syntax textual not equals operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### GREATER_THAN

    public static final String GREATER_THAN

  Syntax textual greater than operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### LESS_THAN

    public static final String LESS_THAN

  Syntax textual less than operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### GREATER_THAN_EQUALS

    public static final String GREATER_THAN_EQUALS

  Syntax textual greater than or equals operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### LESS_THAN_EQUALS

    public static final String LESS_THAN_EQUALS

  Syntax textual less than or equals operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### LIKE

    public static final String LIKE

  Syntax textual like operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### LIKE_IGNORE_CASE

    public static final String LIKE_IGNORE_CASE

  Syntax textual like (case insensitive) operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### CONTAINS

    public static final String CONTAINS

  Syntax textual contains operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### CONTAINS_ALL

    public static final String CONTAINS_ALL

  Syntax textual contains all operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### CONTAINS_ANY

    public static final String CONTAINS_ANY

  Syntax textual contains any operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### IN

    public static final String IN

  Syntax textual in operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### AND

    public static final String AND

  Syntax textual and logical operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

### OR

    public static final String OR

  Syntax textual or logical operator.

  See Also
    Constants Summary

Constructor Detail

### ExpressionHelper

    public ExpressionHelper()

Method Detail

### parse

    public static Expression parse(String queryStr)
                            throws ExpressionHelper.ParseException,
                                   IllegalArgumentException

  Convert a query expression string into an Expression object.

  The string should follow the query syntax specified in the Personalization Server documentation. The expression syntax is tree-based, with each leaf in the tree beinging of the form "property comparator value" (e.g. "`cm_BinarySize <= 1234`").

  Property (LHS)

    This specifies the object property to match against. To specify a property name which contains non-identifier characters (e.g. whitespace, double quotes, dashes), you can use the "`toProperty('property name')`" form in the left-hand-side. To specify property set names as part of the property name, either use the "`properyset.name`" form or the "`toProperty('propertyset', 'property')`" form in the left-hand-side.

  Comparators

    The valid comparision operators are `=` (or `==`), `!=`, `<`, `>`, `<=`, `>=`, "`like`", "`likeignorecase`", "`contains`", "`containsall`" "`containsany`", and "`in`".
    The "`like`" and "`likeignorecase`" operators expect the pattern (which is the value of the leaf) to use `*` (match all) and `?` (match any); "`like`" and "`likeignorecase`" also are only expected to work against String values, although they might work with other datatypes depending upon the search implementation. "`like`" does case sensitive matching; "`likeignorecase`" does case insensitive matching.
    The "`in`" operator expects the value to be a list. Otherwise, it's equivalent to `=`. The "`contains`" operator is only expected to work against multi-valued properties, although it might work with other datatypes depending upon the search implementation.
    The "`containsall`" and "`containsany`" operators are only expected to work against multi-valued properties, although they might work with other datatypes depending upon the search implementation. They expect the value to be a list. Otherwise, they're equivalent to "`contains`".

  Value (RHS)
    - String literal values are enclosed in single quotes (back-slash is the quoting character, unicode characters not supported). Additionally, unicode (e.g. "`\u6565`"), octal (e.g. "`\7`", "`\65`", "`\377`"), and standard Java escape sequences (e.g. "`\n`", "`\r`", "`\b`") are allowed in the string literals.
    - Boolean literals are either the "`true`" or "`false`" keyword (without quotes).
    - Number literals are Java form (scientific notation is supported).
    - Time literals are presented in "`toDate(['formatStr'], 'dateStr')`" format. `formatStr` must be a valid `SimpleDateFormat` format string; if omitted, '`MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss z`' is used. Also, the "`now`" keyword specifies the time at which the expression was created.
    - Lists are a comma-separated list of the other value types inside parenthesis. Lists are 1-dimensional; they cannot contain other lists. Lists are only valid values with:
      - `=`, `!=`, "`containsany`" or "`containsall`" against multi-valued property
      - "`in`" against single-valued property
    - References to user, request, or session properties are represented as such:

           <type>Property(<propertyset>, <propertyname>)

           where <type> is one of 'user', 'request',
           or 'session', <propertyset> is the property set name
           and follows the rules for string literals.
           <propertyname> is the property name and follows the
           rules for string literals.

           References to properties should not be passed into the
           SearchOps class. Expression which
           contain references to properties should be realized into a
           searchable expression via the realize() method.

  Each branch in the tree is comprised of 1 or more leafs or branches separated by either "`&&`" (boolean AND) or "`||`" (boolean OR). They can be enclosed in parenthesis for clearity and ordering (AND has precendance over OR). Additionally, "`!`" marks a branch as using negative logic (boolean NOT). The "`!`" operator can only be used preceding an open parenthesis.

  Examples of valid expression strings: ``

  - identifier == '00099abv48932ds'
  - keys == ('00099abv48932ds', -1, 2.0, true, now, null)
  - language == userProperty('MyProperties', 'userPreferredLang')
  - ((UserAge <= 35 && colors contains 'red') || (UserAge > 35 && !(colors contains 'black')) && mimeType == 'text/html'
  - toProperty('MyApp', 'Launch Date') < now && !(MyApp.expireDate > toDate('HH:mm:ss MM-dd-yyyy', '12:12:12 12/12/2002'))

  In the resulting expression tree, the following caveats apply for it to be valid for the `SearchOps`:

  - Each branch node can only be a LogicalAnd, LogicalOr, LogicalMulitAnd, or LogicalMultiOr. Any other branch node type is invalid.
  - Each leaf node can only be an Equals, GreaterOrEquals, GreaterThan, LessOrEquals, LessThan, NotEquals, StringLike, ContainedIn, CollectionContains, CollectionContainsAll, or CollectionContainsAny. Any other branch node type is invalid.
  - Any valid branch or leaf node may be contained in a LogicalNot node.
  - In each leaf node, the left-hand-side will always be a PropertyRef node, which must contain Strings for getPropertySet() and getPropertyName(). In non-realized expression, a leaf node can be a UserPropertyRef, RequestPropertyRef, or SessionPropertyRef to represent a reference to an external property. Repositories should not receive non-realized expression, and, therefore, should not handle these objects; they are free to raise an exception if one is found.
  - The right-hand-side of Equals, NotEquals, GreaterOrEquals, GreaterThan, LessOrEquals, LessThan, or CollectionContains leaf nodes can be a Collection, Long, Double, String, or Timestamp.
  - The right-hand-side of StringLike leaf nodes can be a String. Anything else is invalid (i.e. should not match). The isCaseInsensitiveMatch() flag of the StringLike will be set depending upon whether it should do case sensitive (false, i.e. like) or case insensitive (true, i.e. likeignorecase) matching.
  - The right-hand-side of CollectionContainsAll, CollectionContainsAny, or ContainedIn leaf nodes can be a Collection. Anything else is invalid (i.e. should not match).

  Parameters
    `queryStr` - the query expression string
  Returns
    an Expression object representing (null if queryStr is a null expression).
  Throws
    `ExpressionHelper.ParseException` - thrown on a an invalid expression query or a parser error.
    `IllegalArgumentException` - thrown on a general error.
  See Also
    `normalize(com.bea.p13n.expression.Expression)`

### join

    public static LogicalAnd join(Expression expr1,
                                  Expression expr2)

  Join together two expression via an AND expression.

  Parameters
    `expr1` - the first expression.
    `expr2` - the second expression.
  Returns
    a LogicalAnd of the two expressions.

### getContentIdSearch

    public static Search getContentIdSearch(String contentId)

  Get a search object for a single content based upon the supplied id.

### getContentPathSearch

    public static Search getContentPathSearch(String contentPath)

  Get a search object for a single content based upon the supplied path.

### getContentPathSearch

    public static Search getContentPathSearch(ID uid,
                                              String version)

  Get a search object for a single version based upon the supplied UID and version.

### getContentId

    public static String getContentId(Expression expr)

  Return the content id from the expression, if it's an expression for a single content object based upon identifier.

  Returns
    the content id, or null if it's not a identifier equality expression.

### normalize

    public static Expression normalize(Expression expr)
                                throws IllegalArgumentException

  Normalize an Expression.

  This will recursively remove branches that contain only one Expression (which are boolean equivelant to the one child expression) or that contain no children (which are considered empty).

  Parameters
    `expr` - the incoming expression.
  Returns
    the normalized expression, null if normalized to nothing.
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - thrown if the expression is not a valid content expression.

### convertInOperators

    public static Expression convertInOperators(Expression expr)
                                         throws IllegalArgumentException

  Convert an expression tree to not contain any 'in' comparison operators.

  This will change all ContainedIn leafs into a MultiOr branch of Equals leafs for each element of the ContainedIn right-hand-side list. Or, in syntax terms, "`prop in (1, 2, 3)`" will become "`(prop == 1 || prop == 2 || prop == 3)`".

  Parameters
    `expr` - the incoming expression.
  Returns
    the updated expression, which might not be the same as what's passed in depending upon the structure (can be null if it normalizes down to "`prop in null`" or "`prop in ()`").
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - if the expression structure isn't valid.

### convertContainsAnyOperators

    public static Expression convertContainsAnyOperators(Expression expr)
                                                  throws IllegalArgumentException

  Convert an expression tree to not contain any 'containsany' comparison operators.

  This will change all CollectionContainsAny leafs into a MultiOr branch of CollectionContains leafs for each element of the CollectionContainsAny right-hand-side list. Or, in syntax terms, "`prop containsany (1, 2, 3)`" will become "`(prop contains 1 || prop contains== 2 || prop contains 3)`".

  Parameters
    `expr` - the incoming expression.
  Returns
    the updated expression, which might not be the same as what's passed in depending upon the structure (can be null if it normalizes down to "`prop containsany null`" or "`prop containsany ()`").
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - if the expression structure isn't valid.

### realize

    public static Expression realize(Expression expr,
                                     PropertyProvider props)
                              throws IllegalArgumentException

  Realize an expression, which can contain property references, into an an expression which contains only literal values and can be sent to a `SearchOps`. Or, in syntax terms, if the user's "prop" property in the 'propset' Property Set is 'red', "`prop == userProperty('propset', 'prop')`" will become "`prop == 'red'`".

  This will modify the passed in expression.

  Parameters
    `expr` - the expression to realize.
    `props` - the object which provides values for property references.
  Returns
    the modified expression
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - thrown if the expr is not a valid content expression or contain a reference to an unknown property type.

### isLogicalNot

    public static Expression isLogicalNot(Expression expr)

  Tell if an expression is really a logical not and, if so, returns the contained expression.

  Parameters
    `expr` - the expression.
  Returns
    the contained expressions if expr is a logical not, null otherwise.

### isValidLeafNode

    public static boolean isValidLeafNode(Expression expr)

  Tell if an expression is a valid content leaf node type.

### isValidBranchNode

    public static boolean isValidBranchNode(Expression expr)

  Tell if an expression is a valid content branch node type.

### toString

    public static String toString(Expression expr)
                           throws IllegalArgumentException

  Get a string representation of the given expression.

  Pretty much, a string generated from this method can be parse()'ed into the semantically equivalent (not neccessarily identical) expression tree.

  Parameters
    `expr` - the expression.
  Returns
    the query syntax representation of the expression.
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - thrown if the given expression is not a valid content expression.

### print

    public static void print(PrintWriter out,
                             Expression expr)
                      throws IllegalArgumentException

  Print a string representation of the given expression.

  Pretty much, a string generated from this method can be parse()'ed into the semantically equivalent (not neccessarily identical) expression tree.

  Parameters
    `out` - the output writer.
    `expr` - the expression.
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - thrown if the given expression is not a valid content expression.

### printLeafNode

    public static void printLeafNode(PrintWriter out,
                                     Expression expr)
                              throws IllegalArgumentException

  Return a string representation of the given leaf expression node.

  Parameters
    `out` - the output writer.
    `expr` - the expression.
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - thrown if the given expression is not a valid leaf expression.

### getLeftHandSide

    public static PropertyRef getLeftHandSide(Expression expr)
                                       throws IllegalArgumentException

  Get the left-hand-side of a valid leaf node, which should be a PropertyRef.

  Parameters
    `expr` - the leaf node expression.
  Returns
    the left-hand-side content property ref
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - if the the left-hand-side is null or not a PropertyRef.

### getComparator

    public static String getComparator(Expression expr)
                                throws IllegalArgumentException

  Get the syntax comparator textual operator for the given leaf node.

  Parameters
    `expr` - the leaf node expression.
  Returns
    the syntax operator constant, one of `EQUALS`, `NOT_EQUALS`, `GREATER_THAN`, `GREATER_THAN_EQUALS`, `LESS_THAN`, `LESS_THAN_EQUALS`, `LIKE`, `LIKE_IGNORE_CASE`, `IN`, `CONTAINS`, `CONTAINS_ALL`, or `CONTAINS_ANY` or null if the expression is null.
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - if the expression is not a valid leaf node.

### getRightHandSide

    public static Object getRightHandSide(Expression expr)
                                   throws IllegalArgumentException

  Get the right-hand-side of a valid leaf node.

  Parameters
    `expr` - the leaf node expression.
  Returns
    the right-hand-side value, which should be an Object value, null, a `RequestPropertyRef`, a `SessionPropertyRef`, or a `UserPropertyRef`.
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - if the expression is not a valid leaf node.

### printBranchNode

    public static void printBranchNode(PrintWriter out,
                                       Expression expr)

  Return a string representation of the given expression branch.

  Parameters
    `out` - the output writer.
    `expr` - the expression.
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - thrown if the given expression is not a valid branch node expression or one it's children is invalid.

### getLogicalComparator

    public static String getLogicalComparator(Expression expr)
                                       throws IllegalArgumentException

  Get the syntax logical comparator textual operator for the given branch node.

  Parameters
    `expr` - the expression.
  Returns
    the boolean logic syntax operator constant, either `AND` or `OR`, or null if the expression is null.
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - thrown if the given expression is not a valid branch node expression.

### getSubExpression

    public static Expression getSubExpression(Expression expr,
                                              int count)
                                       throws IllegalArgumentException

  Get a child expression of the specified expression at the count index.

  Parameters
    `expr` - the parent expression.
    `count` - the index.
  Returns
    the child expression or null if no such child.
  Throws
    `IllegalArgumentException` - if the child is not an Expression.

### fromStringLiteral

    public static String fromStringLiteral(String in)

  Convert a String literal (which may contain quoted characters) into a corresponding String value.

  This supports the standard Java Language Specification escape sequences.

  In addition, this also supports escaping of wildcard characters '*' & '?' used by the expression helper

  Parameters
    `in` - the input string literal.
  Returns
    the string value.

### isHexString

    public static boolean isHexString(String str)

  Determine if a string contains only ASCII hexidecimal characters ([0-9a-fA-F]).

  Parameters
    `str` - the input string.
  Returns
    true if the string contains only ASCII hex characters.

### toStringLiteral

    public static String toStringLiteral(String in)

  Get an ASCII String literal from a Java string.

  This will quote some special characters with back-slashes.

  The output of this can be sent through `fromStringLiteral(java.lang.String)` to result in the original String.

### getOrdinalValue

    public static int getOrdinalValue(char ch)

  Get the ordinal (Unicode) value of a character.

### retrieveVersionFromVersionPath

    public static String retrieveVersionFromVersionPath(String path)

### retrievePathFromVersionPath

    public static String retrievePathFromVersionPath(String path)

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Copyright © 2008 BEA Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved