PROPOSAL: More flexible ObjectRef

[Matthew MacKenzie <mattm@adobe.com>]

Group,

The current Registry object reference mechanism as defined by the RIM ObjectRef class is too rigid when it comes to use cases that involve object versioning. The current ObjectRef mechanism allows a specific version of one object to reference a specific version of another object. However, it does not allow a version of one object to reference say the "latest" or "latest approved" version of another object.

There are many use cases where this would be desirable, for example:

CompanyA publishes a "form" to the registry. The form is actually a RegistryPackage containing an XML file, and some resources (images, sounds, video, ...). In some cases, I do not want to automatically inherit changes to constituent objects, so in those cases, I would create HasMember references to specific versions of the objects to my package members. In other cases, I want to automatically upgrade all forms (for example, company logo change) and reference the latest version of all member objects.

My proposal is to add a new logical id attribute to the set of registry versioning attributes, and otherwise improving ObjectRef to allow selection of a particular version of an object.

___________________________
Matthew MacKenzie
Senior Architect
IDBU Server Solutions
Adobe Systems Canada Inc.
http://www.adobe.com/products/server/
mattm@adobe.com
+1 (506) 871.5409