How do I store an array in an ElectricCommander property?
How do I store an array in a property? I'm using perl and would like to store an array of arrays into a property for retrieval in my next step.
Best Answer
I ended up freezing
> use Storable; use Storable qw(nstore
> store_fd nstore_fd freeze thaw
> dclone);
>
> my $ec = new ElectricCommander();
>
> my @projectMap=([1, 2, 3] [a, b, c]);
> my $property = '/myJob/Info';
> $ec->createProperty($property, {propertyType=>'string', value=>pack("u", freeze(\@projectMap))});
and then unfreezing my array
> use Storable; use Storable qw(nstore
> store_fd nstore_fd freeze thaw
> dclone);
>
> my $ec = new ElectricCommander();
>
> my $temp =
> $ec->getProperty("/myJob/Info")->findvalue("//value")->string_value();
> my $tempProjectMap = thaw( unpack( "u", $temp ) );
> my @projectMap = @$tempProjectMap;
Here is an example of an array stored in a property sheet
use strict;
use ElectricCommander;
$| = 1;
my $ec = new ElectricCommander();
my $totalElements = $ec->getProperty("/myProject/elementCount")
->findnodes("//value")
->string_value();
for (my $i=1 ; $i <= $totalElements ; $i++) {
my $element = $ec->getProperty("/myProject/Elements/$i")
->findnodes("//value")
->string_value();
print "$element \n";
}This will allow to extract under your project, a number of elements and then loop for each entry from 1 to that number in the property sheet named Elements
To create an array of array, simply iterate one more level and make $i a property sheet instead of simple property.
Mike's way is certainly easier
Depending on how simple your array is, you may find it easier to simply use the Perl join() function to glue all the array elements together (for example, separated by commas or semicolons) and then save the result as a property. To use the property later, call the Perl split() function on the retrieved property to separate the array elements again. Just make sure that your separator character will never be used in any of the array elements. A newline also makes a good separator.
Well, you could iterate over each of the individual elements in the array of arrays, and duplicate that structure into a multi-level property sheet structure in Commander... but I found that to be painful and unnecessary if had no need to see or manipulate the individual values outside of Perl.
As it turns out, ec-perl includes the Storable perl module -- so some time ago, I created a couple of perl functions that I use to store and retrieve arbitrary Perl data structures to/from a Commander property.
I put that project on the Electric Cloud community GIT repository, here. The direct download to the project export is here -- save the XML file and import into your Commander server using ectool, something like:
ectool import --file pps_export.xml
You'll probably need administrative permissions to do this, so you may have to ask/beg/bribe your Commander Admin for help if necessary.
