Generic Object Class

At a high level, objects are simply named collections of attributes, which are name/value pairs. The value of an attribute can be an atomic value such as a string, a collection such as a list, or a reference to another object. You can represent almost any object abstractly with the Map, List, and String Java classes.

Within the Waveset system, the GenericObject class provides a simple memory model for the representation of arbitrary objects and collections. It includes features for easily navigating object hierarchies to access or modify attribute values.

The GenericObject class implements the java.util.Map interface and internally uses a java.util.HashMap to manage a collection of name/value pairs. The entries in this map are called attributes. The value of an attribute can be any Java object that is able to serialize itself as XML. The most common attribute values found in a GenericObject:

The following are instances of the following classes:

• String

• Integer

• Boolean

• EncryptedData

• List

• Date

• GenericObject

• X509cert

You can construct complex hierarchies of objects by assigning Lists or GenericObjects as attribute values. Once you have assigned attribute values, you traverse this hierarchy to access the values of an attribute.