[ACCUMULO-743] Authorization constructors are pretty wonky - String research?

• Type: Sub-task
• Status: Open
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Component/s: client
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: John Vines
• Created: 28/Aug/12 14:45
• Updated: 23/Apr/14 16:51

Description

The various constructors for Authorizations are somewhat all over the place. There is only one which uses Strings (most convenient for the user) but it only accepts them via variable args.

The rest are in some form of bytes. One is a comma seperated byte array, one is a List of ByteBuffers, and then there is another which is a Collection of byte[].

We make extensive use of bytes instead of Strings due to encoding concerns. I would like to see a bit more consistency in the constructors for Authorizations. Because right now we sort of have a half assed approach of being safe by using Bytes, but then having Strings (as var args) for usability. I think we need to come up with a definite yes or no on Strings, and then provide appropriate methods for dealing with them.

Issue Links

• is related to: ACCUMULO-1005 Authorizations and ColumnVisibility API should not accept Charset param