Filtering, Searching and Reference Item Rules

It is possible to ask the attribute resource to filter its attributes using a string that specifies some search criteria (i.e., a filter). The current implementation expands on the base functionality provided by smtk::resource::Resource::queryOperation which allows users to filter components based on the existence and values of properties by adding the ability to search for attributes based on their type (i.e., the name of its definition and those definitions which inherit it).

Note that these query strings can be used in a resource’s find(…) method as well as in a Reference Item Definition’s Accept or Reject rules

The current grammar syntax for attribute resources is:

• One of the following : attribute, *, or any followed by [

• One or more of the following sub-phrases:

  • Attribute Type Phrase

    • type = followed by one of the following

      • ‘attribute-type-name’

      • /regular-expression/

  • Property Phrase

    • property-type optionally followed by

      • { property-name optionally followed by

        • = property-value

      • }

• ]

For example, consider an attribute resource consisting of the following:

• Definitions (where a : b means a is derived from b)

  • Base

  • MyDef1 : Base

  • MyDef2 : Base

• Attributes (where a : d means Attribute a is based on Definition d)

  • a : Base

  • b : MyDef1

  • c : MyDef2

  • c1 : MyDef2

Lets also add some properties to these attributes: + a has long property alpha = 10 + b has long property beta = 100 + c has long property alpha = 200 + c1 has long property alpha = 10 and double property gamma = 3.14

Examples of valid query strings.

Query string	Results
“attribute [type = 'Base']”	Returns a, b, c, c1 since all are derived from Definition Base.
“attribute [type = 'MyDef2']”	Returns c, c1 since they are derived from Definition MyDef2.
“attribute [type = '/My.*/']”	Returns b, c, c1 since each has a Definition in its derivation whose type matches the RegEx.
“attribute [long{'alpha'}]”	Returns a, c, c1 since they are have a long property named alpha.
“attribute [long {'alpha'}]”	Returns a, c, c1 since they are have a long property named alpha.
“attribute [type = 'MyDef2', long{'alpha'}]”	Returns c, c1 since they are have a long property named alpha and are derived from MyDef2.
“attribute [long {'alpha' = 10}]”	Returns a since it has a long property named alpha with value 10.
“attribute [long{'alpha'}, double{'gamma'}]”	Returns c1 since it is the only one with both a double named gamma and long property named alpha.

See smtk/attribute/testing/cxx/unitAssociationTest.cxx for a complete example.