[OODT-689] XmlStructFactory generates invalid ProductType if policy is missing "<metadata/>" or "<metExtractors/>"

• Type: Sub-task
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 0.6
• Fix Version/s: 0.11
• Component/s: file manager
• Skill Level: Don't Know (Unsure) - The default level
• Assignee: Rishi Verma
• Reporter: Rishi Verma
• Created: 08/May/14 18:39
• Updated: 30/Aug/15 01:33
• Resolved: 30/Aug/15 01:33

Description

The XmlStructFactory class [1] can generate invalid ProductType objects if an XML product-types.xml file has policy missing either the "<metadata/>" tag or the "<metExtractors/>" tag. Moreover, if these nodes are missing, the user is not informed about the missing elements and is instead presented with a NullPointerException when new policy is written automatically via the AddProductTypeCliAction (or other such tools).

I propose the following:

• XmlStructFactory's getProductType method should NOT default the initialization of the met (Metadata) object or the extractors (List<ExtractorSpec>) object to be null. Instead, they should be initialized as an empty Metadata object and an empty Vector<ExtractorSpec> list respectively.
• XmlStructFactory's getProductType method should warn the user via a Logger warning that either a "<metadata/>" or "<metExtractors/>" node is missing

The reason I propose we default the metadata and metExtractors object to be empty objects instead of null objects, is because of the way the ProductType [2] object constructor is configured. By default, instantiating a new ProductType object leads its internal Metadata and metExtractors objects being set to empty objects instead of null objects. However, through the XmlStructFactory, this pattern breaks when a metadata or metExtractors node is not present in policy - these objects are set to null and the new ProductType that is generated on line 202 of XmlStructFactory is corrupted. This can be prevented by a simple initialization change as proposed.