DEVELOPERS FORUM - Item is not a collection

pravinnalkande - Monday, February 6, 2012 12:54 AM:

Hi All,

When I execute the following method  i get an error like 'Item is not a collection'

Please help me.What is the problem in below method.

---------------------------------------

Innovator inn= this.getInnovator();
Item result=null;
Item myItem=null;
string itemTypeName= this.getProperty("ItemType");
string []newTypeName=itemTypeName.Split('=');
//return inn.newError(newTypeName.Length.ToString());

for(int typeCount=0;typeCount<newTypeName.Length-1;typeCount++)
{
  string Test=newTypeName[newTypeName.Length - 1];
  Item itemType= this.newItem("ItemType","get");
  itemType.setProperty("name",Test);
  itemType=itemType.apply();

  Item requiredProperty= this.newItem("Property","get");
  requiredProperty.setProperty("is_required","1");
  requiredProperty.setProperty("is_hidden","0");
  requiredProperty.setProperty("is_hidden2","0");
  requiredProperty.setProperty("source_id",itemType.getItemByIndex(typeCount).getProperty("id"));
  requiredProperty=requiredProperty.apply();
  //return inn.newError(requiredProperty.getItemCount().ToString());
 
string createItemAML="<AML><Item type=""+Test+"" action="add">";
 string value="";

  if(requiredProperty.getItemCount()>0)
  {
    for(int i=0;i<requiredProperty.getItemCount();i++)
     {
      if(requiredProperty.getItemByIndex(i).getProperty("data_type")=="string")
       {
         value="";
       }
else if(requiredProperty.getItemByIndex(i).getProperty("data_type")=="date")
  {
     value=DateTime.Now.ToString("s");
  }
else
 {
    value="0";
 }
   createItemAML=createItemAML+"<"+requiredProperty.getItemByIndex(i).getProperty("name")+">"+value+"</"+requiredProperty.getItemByIndex(i).getProperty("name")+">";
  }
}
 createItemAML=createItemAML+"</Item></AML>";
 myItem=this.newItem("sg_mapping","get");
 myItem.apply();

 result=inn.applyAML(createItemAML);
 myItem.appendItem(result);


}
return myItem;
----------------------------------------

Can anyone tell me what is the problem inside this method?

Cheers,

Pravin

Brian - Thursday, February 9, 2012 5:49 AM:

Hi Pravin,

to start with "ItemType" is an attribute not a property.

Use   this.getType()   to retrieve the item type.

This will be a single string and so you should not "split" into a array.

I suspect that when you call "itemType = itemType.apply()" you are actually getting an error returned. So when you try to retrieve a property from this faulty Item it returns an error.

It is always good to test the result of an "apply()" call.

eg. Item result = query.apply();
if (result.isError()){
     // react to the error
}
if ( result.isEmpty()){
    // there is nothing that has been returned.
}
if ( result.isCollection()){
    // you are dealing with more than one Item
}

Now you are confident that if you get to this code the "result" item is OK.

You don't always need to check all of these.

You can use:

for (int i = 0; i < result.getItemCount(); i++){
     Item instance = result.getItemByIndex(i);
     string value = instance.getProperty("propName","");
}

Try this,

Cheers,

Brian.