org.apache.java.util
Class ExtendedProperties

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--java.util.Dictionary
        |
        +--java.util.Hashtable
              |
              +--org.apache.java.util.ConfigurationsRepository
                    |
                    +--org.apache.java.util.ExtendedProperties

public class ExtendedProperties

extends ConfigurationsRepository

This class extends normal Java properties by adding the possibility to use the same key many times concatenating the value strings instead of overwriting them.

The Extended Properties syntax is explained here:

• each property has the syntax key = value
• the key may use any character but the equal sign '='
• value may be separated on different lines if a backslash is placed at the end of the line that continues below.
• if value is a list of strings, each token is separated by a comma ','
• Commas in each token are escaped placing a backslash right before the comma.
• if a key is used more than once, the values are appended like if they were on the same line separated with commas.
• blank lines and lines starting with character '#' are skipped
• If a property is named "include" (or whatever is defined by setInclude() and getInclude() and the value of that property is the full path to a file on disk, that file will be included into the ConfigurationsRepository. Duplicate name values will be replaced, so be careful.

Here is an example of a valid extended properties file:

      # lines starting with # are comments

      # This is the simplest property
      key = value

      # A long property may be separated on multiple lines
      longvalue = aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa \
                  aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

      # This is a property with many tokens
      tokens_on_a_line = first token, second token

      # This sequence generates exactly the same result
      tokens_on_multiple_lines = first token
      tokens_on_multiple_lines = second token

      # commas may be escaped in tokens
      commas.excaped = Hi\, what'up?
 

NOTE: this class has not been written for performance nor low memory usage. In fact, it's way slower than it could be and generates too much memory garbage. But since performance it's not an issue during intialization (and there no much time to improve it), I wrote it this way. If you don't like it, go ahead and tune it up!

Version:

$Revision: 1.11 $ $Date: 2000/04/29 01:26:04 $

See Also:

Configurations, Serialized Form

Inner Class Summary

(package private) class	ExtendedProperties.PropertiesReader This class is used to read properties lines.
(package private) class	ExtendedProperties.PropertiesTokenizer This class divides into tokens a property value.

Field Summary

private static java.lang.String

include this is the name of the property that can point to other properties file for including other properties files

Fields inherited from class org.apache.java.util.ConfigurationsRepository

file, model

Fields inherited from class java.util.Hashtable

count, ENTRIES, entrySet, KEYS, keySet, loadFactor, modCount, serialVersionUID, table, threshold, values, VALUES

Constructor Summary

ExtendedProperties()
Creates an empty extended properties object.

ExtendedProperties(java.lang.String file)
Creates and loads the extended properties from the specified file.

Method Summary

java.lang.String	getInclude() Gets the property value for including other properties files By default it is "include"
void	load(java.io.InputStream input) Load the properties from the given input stream.
void	save(java.io.OutputStream output, java.lang.String Header) Save the properties to the given outputstream.
void	setInclude(java.lang.String inc) Sets the property value for including other properties files.

Methods inherited from class org.apache.java.util.ConfigurationsRepository

combine

Methods inherited from class java.util.Hashtable

clear, clone, contains, containsKey, containsValue, elements, entrySet, equals, get, hashCode, isEmpty, keys, keySet, put, putAll, readObject, rehash, remove, size, toString, values, writeObject

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

, finalize, getClass, notify, notifyAll, registerNatives, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

include

private static java.lang.String include

this is the name of the property that can point to other properties file for including other properties files

Constructor Detail

ExtendedProperties

public ExtendedProperties()

Creates an empty extended properties object.

ExtendedProperties

public ExtendedProperties(java.lang.String file)
                   throws java.io.IOException

Creates and loads the extended properties from the specified file.

Method Detail

getInclude

public java.lang.String getInclude()

Gets the property value for including other properties files By default it is "include"

setInclude

public void setInclude(java.lang.String inc)

Sets the property value for including other properties files. By default it is "include"

load

public void load(java.io.InputStream input)
          throws java.io.IOException

Load the properties from the given input stream.

Overrides:

load in class ConfigurationsRepository

save

public void save(java.io.OutputStream output,
                 java.lang.String Header)
          throws java.io.IOException

Save the properties to the given outputstream.

Overrides:

save in class ConfigurationsRepository