Jini™ Specifications, The, Second Edition

LS.2. Human Access to Attributes

LS.2.1. Providing a Single View of an Attribute’s Value

Consider the following entry class:

public class Foo implements net.jini.core.entry.Entry {
    public Bar baz; 
} 

public class Bar {
    int quux; 
    boolean zot; 
} 

A visual search tool is going to have a difficult time rendering the value of an instance of class Bar in a manner that is comprehensible to humans. Accordingly, to avoid such situations, entry class implementors should use the following guidelines when designing a class that is to act as a value for an attribute:

• Provide a property editor class of the appropriate type, as described in Section 9.2 of the JavaBeans Specification.
• Extend the java.awt.Component class; this allows a value to be represented ...