README #1

p4java_ext
==========

This is not a supported API.

This is a project started after realizing that the easiest way to use P4Java
was simply to use these methods from `IOptionsServer`:

* `execMapCommand`
* `execInputStringMapCommand`

If you build around these calls, the API functions very closely to how the
C++ API works, which is how most of the other Perforce applications function.
Importantly, this makes it very clear which commands actually issue network
requests and which do not.

Anyhow, this API sits on top of these commands (and may eventually use the
streaming commands) to provide fewer abstractions on top of the fundamental
API.

Keep in mind this API really was built to set up another project (the data
initializer we use for tests), so it hasn't really been reasoned or hardened
just yet.


## Usage

    P4Connection p4Connection = P4Connection.create(...);

    try {
        p4Connection.connectAs("user");

        // Create a new user

        // Interfaces in this API basically map to command line usage, e.g.,
        // the P4User interface here maps to the "p4 user" command.
        //
        // We provide some basic default implementations of these interfaces
        // that basically bind simply to the connection object.
        P4User p4User = P4User.create(p4Connection);

        // Many commands return "Spec" objects, that wrap the Map<String, Object>
        // with common expected methods. In fact, you usually load a "template spec",
        // even in cases where the object doesn't exist, edit, and then save.
        UserSpec userSpec = p4User.load("newuserlogin");

        userSpec.setFullName(user.getName());
        userSpec.setEmail(user.getEmail());

        p4User.forceSave(userSpec);

    } finally {

        // An alias for disconnect
        p4Connection.close();
    }


## To Do

This is a very, very early attempt at the API, extremely likely to change at the
moment.