CastNode extends 
ActivityNode,
DataFlowEdgeDestination,
DataFlowEdgesSource
A ActivityOperation may contain any number of CastNode data flow nodes. A CastNode must have exactly one incoming DataFlowEdge, representing the source value and type. A CastNode must also have exactly one outgoing DataFlowEdge to another data flow node, representing the target value and type.
A CastNode may have additional outgoing DataFlowEdges. If an outgoing DataFlowEdge is connected to a DecisionNode named "can cast?", then the value of this DataFlowEdge represents whether the incoming source value to the CastNode can be successfully cast to the target type. All other outgoing DataFlowEdges represent the forcibly cast value of the incoming source value to the target type; a forcibly cast value will not display an error message if the cast was not possible.
A "successful" cast is one where the source can be converted successfully with no loss of information. So, for example, the String "123" can be successfully cast to an Integer, but "123.4" cannot. However, this failure can be discarded if loss of information is acceptable; for example, "123.4" forcibly cast to an Integer will return "123".
List of possible casts, ignoring identical types:
| Source type | Target type | Successful | Cast |
|---|---|---|---|
| iamlInteger | iamlString | Yes | 123 is converted into "123". |
| iamlDateTime | iamlString | Yes | Date is converted into RFC
2822, for example Thu, 21 Dec 2000 16:01:07 +0200. |
| iamlEmail | iamlString | Yes | test@openiaml.org is converted into "test@openiaml.org". |
| iamlString | iamlEmail | If string matches an e-mail regexp. or is empty "". | Will be converted at best as it can into an e-mail address, or "" if it cannot be converted. |
| iamlString | iamlDateTime | If PHP's strtotime() method does
not return false. | The result of PHP's strtotime() method, or the UNIX epoch otherwise. [note] |
| iamlString | iamlInteger | Only successful if the source string matches the regular expression ^[0-9]*$
[note]. An empty string is cast to 0. |
Follows the semantics of PHP's intval() function. |
| iamlInteger | iamlDateTime | Yes. | The integer represents the time measured in the number of seconds since the Unix Epoch (i.e. a timestamp) [note]. Can be negative. |
| iamlDateTime | iamlInteger | Only successful if the date is between December 13, 1901 20:45:52
GMT and January 19, 2038 03:14:07 GMT, inclusive. |
The integer represents the time measured in the number of seconds since the Unix Epoch (i.e. a timestamp) [note]. |
Notes
- iamlString to iamlEmail: Only successful
if the source string matches the regular expression
^([0-9a-zA-Z]([-.\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z])*@([0-9a-zA-Z][-\w]*[0-9a-zA-Z]\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,9})$. - iamlString to iamlInteger: The size of
the integer is limited from
-2147483648to2147483647. - iamlInteger to iamlDateTime: Unix Epoch is January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT.
- iamlString to iamlDateTime: Server-side uses PHP's strtotime() method, whereas client-side uses Javascript's parse() method. See issue 161.
- Dates are stored as 64-bit integers, so all imaginable dates (including negative years) are supported.
