[CLK-396] Chained HtmlStringBuffer.

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.5 M1
• Fix Version/s: 1.5 M2
• Assignee: Malcolm Edgar
• Reporter: Demetrios Kyriakis
• Created: 15/Jun/08 11:30
• Updated: 20/Jun/08 04:25
• Resolved: 20/Jun/08 04:25

Description

#1. Please add a chaining based HtmlStringBuffer utility class.
I know that method chaining is pretty bad practice for many cases, and when available it's always totally misused (I revied myself allot of such code), but I think in the case of HtmlStringBuffer it would be an improvement and would make the rendering code (that is ugly indepenent of language due to HTML ) look a little bit nicer:
Unchained:
----------------------------
buffer.elementStart("button");
buffer.appendAttribute("id", "theId");
buffer.appendAttribute("type", "button");
buffer.closeTag();
buffer.append("Button Text");
buffer.elementEnd("button);
-----------------------------

chained:
-----------------------------
buffer.elementStart("button")
.appendAttribute("id", "theId")
.appendAttribute("type", "button")
.closeTag()
.append("Button Text");
buffer.elementEnd("button);
-----------------------------

or even (to simulate the HTML nesting):
-----------------------------
buffer.elementStart("button").appendAttribute("id", "theId").appendAttribute("type", "button") .closeTag()
.append("Button Text");
buffer.elementEnd("button);
-----------------------------

For more HTML elements and more nesting, the advantage is even more visible.

#2. If it's possible, please shorten the syntax if possible (e.g. I think "appendAttribute()" is just too long).