function lookup using qualified name

• Contact: Jody Garnett

• Tracker: https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOT-3871

• Tagline: a function by any other name

Description

We have officially reached the limits of function lookup using a simple String. This limitation is causing us a bit of pain on too fronts:

• bridging between process and function is not a direct one to one unless we can qualify the function name with a namespace
• the WFS 2.0 specification offers some syntactic sugar (known as operations) as an alternate way of using a function; this also requires a namespace.

Rather than add a namespace; we are going to recycle out Name class which is also used for feature types; attribute types, process and anywhere else we need a qualified name. The Name class is similar to Java QName but more lightweight and easier to hack with.

Status

This proposal is being fast tracked as it is holding up the existing Join Support proposal.

Voting has not started yet:

• Andrea Aime
• Ben Caradoc-Davies
• Christian Mueller
• Ian Turton
• Justin Deoliveira +1
• Jody Garnett +1
• Simone Giannecchini

Tasks

This section is used to make sure your proposal is complete (did you remember documentation?) and has enough paid or volunteer time lined up to be a success

1. ✅ Add Name to the FunctionFactory interface as shown in BEFORE / AFTER (GEOT-3871)
2. Update the docs to show an example of looking up a function using a Name
3. Update the Update instructions showing people an example of how to update their FunctionFactory
4. ⚠️ update CQL parser to respect qualified name (example "se:interpolate" )

API Changes

Filter

BEFORE:

interface FunctionFactory {
    List<FunctionName> getFunctionNames();
    Function function(String name, List<Expression> args, Literal fallback );
}
class FunctionFinder {
    public findFunction(String name, List<Expression>  parameters)
    public findFunction(String name, List<Expression>  parameters, Literal fallback)
    ...
}

A quick code example:

Expression expr = ff.function("buffer",ff.property("geom"), ff.literal(0.3));
Expression expr2 = CQL.expression("buffer( geom, 0.3 )");

AFTER:

interface FunctionFactory {
    List<FunctionName> getFunctionNames();
    Function function(String name, List<Expression> args, Literal fallback );
    Function function(Name name, List<Expression> args, Literal fallback );
}
class FunctionFinder {
    public findFunction(String name, List<Expression>  parameters)
    public findFunction(String name, List<Expression>  parameters, Literal fallback)
    public Function findFunction(Name name, List<Expression>  parameters)
    public Function findFunction(Name name, List<Expression>  parameters, Literal fallback)
    ...
}

A quick code example:

// qualify buffer to use the Process implementation of buffer
Expression expr = ff.function( new NameImpl("jts","buffer"), ff.property("geom"), ff.literal(0.3), ff.literal(32), ff.literal("round") );

// unqualified name
Expression expr = ff.function( new NameImpl("buffer"), ff.property("geom"), ff.literal(32), ff.literal("round") );

// CQL - is this possible?
Expression expr = CQL.expression("jts:buffer( GEOM, 0.3, 32, 'round'");

// backwards compatibility
Expression expr = ff.function("buffer",ff.property("geom"), ff.literal(0.3));

// factory can split on ":" 
Expression expr = ff.function("jts:buffer",ff.property("geom"), ff.literal(0.3), ff.literal(32), ff.literal("round") );

Documentation Changes

The following documentation pages need attention after this change:

• Function Tutorial
• Factory Introduction
• Filter (gt-opengis) Function example code need an example with Name
• Filter (gt-main) needs FunctionFactory example updated