DataStructure is not an ObjectElement

[Jeff Cook]

Though the documentation claims that DataStructures are ObjectElements, you can see that they inherit from BaseElement, not ObjectElement, on src/elements/data-structure.js:2 :

class DataStructure extends namespace.BaseElement {

I have tried replacing this manually in the code with ObjectElement and ArrayElement, but there is a big cascade of errors when doing so.

I don't think the DataStructure support is really fleshed out. Instead of using a refracted value as most other tests do, the DataStructure tests are initialized with a simple:

  context('data structure element', () => {
    let struct;

    beforeEach(() => {
      struct = new DataStructure('test');
    });

(from test/api-descriptions.js:381)

I also ran into the issues described in #18 .

[Pavan Kumar Sunkara]

Thanks for the report @sjuxax. I am looking into this currently.

[Kyle Fuller]

Hi @sjuxax,

The problem here lies in Drafter (API Blueprint parser) which is returning an array of any base element. A base API Element should instead be inside the data structure content.

The implementation of minim is correct, however the documentation for minim is incorrect in saying it should be an object element inside the data structure. This isn't true as an array data structures content would be an array element, etc. The documentation in API Elements shows the possibilities: http://api-elements.readthedocs.io/en/latest/element-definitions/#base-data-structure-element

Where ref/element pointer can also be there when a data structure is just referencing another.

[Pavan Kumar Sunkara]

The documentation is wrong here. DataStructue is actually a BaseElement not ObjectElement. I am working on updating it and adding a bit of tests. Let's follow the issue in #18.

What was your use case here? How were you trying to use it?

[Jeff Cook]

I was trying to walk the tree of an API Blueprint converted to Refract. Everything seems to work except DataStructure elements. This is a problem at least in the serialization pipeline, which produces output that doesn't match the API Elements specification.

I have a work-in-progress patch that produces more-or-less acceptable output given the current serialization format. I will post it up in a little bit, though it's made to address the issues as they stand and not to make things conform to spec.

[Pavan Kumar Sunkara]

Yeah, we have just realised that dataStructre element produced by our parser (Drafter) is an array element which is wrong. We are working on fixing it and it will be released in a major version in the coming few weeks. I am closing this for now.

[Jeff Cook]

So you can see my hack above. It produces output that can be used, even though it's not necessarily pretty.

The problems extend beyond just the wrong type of element getting added as a child of the dataStructure. For example, the "expanded Refract" discussed in the API Elements documentation is not resolved by the serializer, though the documentation indicates this should happen.

There are also several malformed Refract elements generated; elements without content, or in some cases, even element keys.

This line https://github.com/sjuxax/minim-api-description/blob/81f38e70006388e0e80efb931f96a2aad3646bef/src/elements/data-structure.js#L17 handles that by referencing the unresolved elements as <?datatype>. The parser can then store this reference and fill in the blank itself, when it gets down to the bottom and reads the dataStructures element that contains the actual information.

I'll add a couple of examples of bad output in a second.

[Pavan Kumar Sunkara]

If content is not present, then it's null. But yes, we are working on streamlining the serialisation with the upcoming major version.