Search for deep nodes

Question

Suppose I have the following structure

myPage
jcr:content
  ->parContent
      ->myComponent

What is an elegant way to find myComponent if myPage path is known?

I use the following:

private Node myNode(String myPagePath){
    ResourceResolver resourceResolver = request.getResourceResolver();
    Resource resource = resourceResolver.getResource(myPagePath);
    final Node currentNode = resource.adaptTo(Node.class);

    return currentNode.getNode("jcr:content").getNode("parContent").getNode("myComponent");
}

I dont find getNode().getNode().... nice particularry when we have a lot of nodes. Any suggestion?

Answer 1

The getNode(String) method accepts a relative path, so while a child name is is a relative path and frequently how this method is used, you can also construct a relative path:

Node result = currentNode.getNode("jcr:content/parContent/myComponent");

As you can see, it's pretty straightforward. Of course, paths are quite powerful in JCR; see Section 3.4 in the JCR 2.0 specification for a full definition of what's allowed in both absolute and relative paths.

BTW, if you have an absolute path, you must look up the node directly from the Session:

Node result = mySession.getNode("/some/absolute/path/to/a/node");

Answer 2

I discourage the use of the Node API on my development team in JSP's. Instead, the ValueMap interface permits accessing any property, including on paths relative to a page. They don't throw exceptions, and also permit default values if not found.

• http://experiencedelivers.adobe.com/cemblog/en/experiencedelivers/2013/02/valuemap-and-his-friend.html
• http://dev.day.com/docs/en/cq/5-3/javadoc/org/apache/sling/api/resource/ValueMap.html

you can convert Resources to the ValueMap (and you can convert Nodes, Pages to Resource just as easily as to a Node):

ValueMap vm = resource.adaptTo(ValueMap.class);