org.pfsw.text
Class MatchRule

java.lang.Object
  org.pfsw.text.MatchRule

All Implemented Interfaces:

java.io.Serializable

public class MatchRule
extends java.lang.Object
implements java.io.Serializable

The purpose of class MatchRule is to provide an easy-to-use component, that checks a dictionary (i.e. Map) of attributes and corresponding values against a defined rule. Such a rule is a string containing logical operations on attributes and their values.
Particularly in the context of LDAP objects and their attributes this component can be very helpful.

Any instance of this class can handle one rule. A rule can be create through one of the different parsers.
(e.g. DefaultMatchRuleParser or LdapFilterParser ) If the constructor with a rule string as parameter is used, it automatically uses the DefaultMatchRuleParser to parse the rule.

Example:

 Map attributes = new HashMap() ;
 attributes.put( "firstname", "Pedro" ) ;
 attributes.put( "surname", "Vazquez" ) ;
 attributes.put( "dob", "19610422" ) ;
 attributes.put( "city", "Madrid" ) ;
 MatchRule rule = DefaultMatchRuleParser.parse( "surname{V*} & city{Madrid}" ) ;
 if ( rule.match( attributes ) )
 .....
 

See Also:

Serialized Form

MatchRule

public MatchRule()

Initialize the new instance with default values. The rule can be set later with the method setRule().

MatchRule

public MatchRule(boolean ignoreCase)

Initialize the new instance with default values. The rule can be set late with the method setRule(). Here it can be predefined if case sensitivity is switched off or not

MatchRule

public MatchRule(java.lang.String rule)
          throws MatchRuleParseException

Initialize the new instance with a rule for later pattern-matching.

Throws:

MatchRuleParseException

MatchRule

public MatchRule(MatchGroup aGroup)

Initialize the new instance with a root group

MatchRule

public MatchRule(java.lang.String rule,
                 MatchRuleChars charSet)
          throws MatchRuleParseException

Initialize the new instance with rule for later pattern-matching and a set of special characters which are the operators and separators on the rule.

Throws:

MatchRuleParseException

setRule

public void setRule(java.lang.String rule)
             throws MatchRuleParseException

Set (and parse) the given rule and keep it for later checks with matches(). This replaces any other rule given to this instance before.

Throws:

MatchRuleParseException

ignoreCase

public void ignoreCase(boolean ignoreIt)

Defines whether or not the case of characters in value comparison must be ignored.

ignoreCaseInNames

public void ignoreCaseInNames(boolean ignoreIt)

Defines whether or not the case of characters in attribute names must be ignored.

multiCharWildcardMatchesEmptyString

public void multiCharWildcardMatchesEmptyString(boolean yesOrNo)

Sets whether or not this match rule allows empty strings at the position of the multi character wildcard ('*').

The default value is false.

mergeAnd

public void mergeAnd(MatchRule rule)

Append the given rule to the receiver with a logical AND

mergeOr

public void mergeOr(MatchRule rule)

Append the given rule to the receiver with a logical OR

matches

public boolean matches(java.util.Map<java.lang.String,?> dictionary)

Returns true, if the attributes and their values in the given dictionary comply to the rules of the receiver.

Parameters:

dictionary - The attribute-value pairs that have to be checked against the rules

toString

public java.lang.String toString()

Overrides:

toString in class java.lang.Object

apply

public void apply(MatchRuleVisitor visitor)

Iterates through all elements of the rule and calls the appropriate methods of the given visitor.
As the name indicates, this is implemented following the Visitor design pattern from the book Design Patterns from Erich Gamma et. al.

Parameters:

visitor - the object that receives all callbacks for the visited elements

optimize

public void optimize()

Optimize the rule for best performance. This method might change the internal structure of the rule.

setDatatypes

public void setDatatypes(java.util.Map<java.lang.String,java.lang.Class<?>> datatypes)
                  throws MatchRuleException

Sets the datatypes specified in the given map. The keys are the attribute names and the values are the corresponding types.

Currently supported datatypes are:

• Float.class
• Double.class
• BigDecimal.class
• Integer.class
• Long.class
• String.class
• SimpleDateFormat

Parameters:

datatypes - The attributes and their corresponding types

Throws:

MatchRuleException - if a value of the rule cannot be converted to the specified datatype

parser

protected DefaultMatchRuleParser parser()

parseRule

protected void parseRule(java.lang.String rule,
                         MatchRuleChars charSet)
                  throws MatchRuleParseException

Throws:

MatchRuleParseException

appendGroup

protected void appendGroup(MatchGroup group)

getRootGroup

protected MatchGroup getRootGroup()

setRootGroup

protected void setRootGroup(MatchGroup newValue)

getIgnoreCase

protected boolean getIgnoreCase()

setIgnoreCase

protected void setIgnoreCase(boolean newValue)

getIgnoreCaseInNames

protected boolean getIgnoreCaseInNames()

Returns true, if the parser produces MatchRules that treat attribute names case-insensitive.

getParser

protected DefaultMatchRuleParser getParser()

setParser

protected void setParser(DefaultMatchRuleParser newValue)

getMultiCharWildcardMatchesEmptyString

protected boolean getMultiCharWildcardMatchesEmptyString()

Returns true, if this match rule allows empty strings at the position of the multi character wildcard ('*').

The default value is false.