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POHow iterate over a potentially infinite collection of collections using JSTL
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  1. POHow iterate over a potentially infinite collection of collections using JSTL
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    copied!<p>Preface: I am a long-time fan of SO, read stuff here almost everyday -- but this is my first question -- thank you to everyone who has made SO such a fantastic resource!</p> <p>Environment: Spring/JSTL/Java ; the constraints of this project are such that I cannot accept a solution which requires abandoning Spring/Java, though I could probably implement any standard view in place of JSTL.</p> <p>Note: This question is not about <em>how</em> to iterate over a simple collection in JSTL; I know how to do that. Additionally, I have searched SO and Google for an answer to this problem and have yet to find an answer. I am willing to admit that maybe that indicates that I am approaching the problem incorrectly -- if so, I would appreciate an explanation of a better way to approach it. </p> <hr> <p>Problem: I have a data-service from which I obtain a collection of collections. I do not control this service, nor am I able to define it -- someone else is in charge of that, and it can change at any time. Each item in the collection can be another collection (which I must parse), so the entire collection is theoretically unbounded. The collection is basically like this:</p> <ul> <li>Item name : String <ul> <li>Item : Object (can be a String or another Collection)<br> (this sequence is potentially infinite)</li> </ul></li> </ul> <p>Essentially each <em>item</em> is a "service" that my client offers to their customers -- for example: "Configure your institutional-email", and each <em>collection</em> is a "category" of related services -- for example: "Email Services Offered". But the category of "Email Services Offered" could actually be an item/object/collection of a larger item/object/collection that is more general -- for example: "Communication Services Offered".</p> <p>Current Solution: In my Spring Controller I currently get this collection as a Map and place it onto my Model. In my View (JSTL) I (currently) iterate through 2-levels of the collection, where I assume (the one thing I can assume about this) that the first level is all going to be sub-collections (ie: 'categories'), and where I also assume (incorrectly) that the second level is all going to be items (ie: 'services'). </p> <pre><code>&lt;ul&gt; &lt;c:forEach items="${serviceCategories} var="category"&gt; // iterate through each collection &lt;li&gt;${category.key} //the user-displayable title of the 'category' ('collection') &lt;ul&gt; &lt;c:forEach items="${category.value}" var="service"&gt; // iterate through each item &lt;li&gt;${service.key}&lt;/li&gt; //the user-displayable title of the 'service' ('item') &lt;/c:if&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/c:if&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; </code></pre> <p>So I guess my question is that, given such a data-structure, how do I represent it in a view that can manage this??? I am bound by the client's desire to have this structure represented in a tree-like structure.</p> <p>If I could manipulate the view using pure-java then I would expect one way to achieve this would be to use recursion... something like this, I guess:</p> <pre><code>/** NOTE: I am not suggesting this is a great example of recursion, nor that it even * would result in correct output; it was one-off'd just to provide something of an * example of how I imagine this could be done in Java if I had to do it this way. */ private StringBuilder buildString( Map&lt;String, Object&gt; dataStruct ) { StringBuilder view = new StringBuilder(); Set&lt;String&gt; keys = dataStruct.getKeys(); for( String key : keys ) { Object value = dataStruct.get( key ); if( value instanceof String ) { view = key + "[" + value + "]"; return; } String subView = buildString( value ); view = key + "[" + subView + "]"; } </code></pre> <hr> <p>Gosh, I hope that is all clear-as-mud and not overwhelming. I also hope I am simply overlooking (or ignorant of) a more elegant-solution that is readily recognized by someone who can help me out.</p> <p>Thank you for your time! :D</p>
 

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