wip

src/main/java/org/caosdb/server/database/backend/implementation/MySQL/DatabaseUtils.java

@@ -85,13 +85,27 @@ public class DatabaseUtils {
     return replacementCount;
   }
 
-  private static void processPropertiesStage1(
-      final List<Property> stage1Inserts, final Property p, final EntityInterface e) {
-    if (!p.isDescOverride()
+  /**
+   * Determines whether the property p of entity e needs a replacement property to be stored in the
+   * database. A property needs a replacement property if it overrides the description, name, or
+   * datatype and if it does not have a unique property ID, or if it has properties, or if it is
+   * some kind of collection (e.g. list).
+   *
+   * @param p
+   * @param e
+   * @return true if the property needs a replacement property, false otherwise
+   */
+  private static boolean noReplacementneeded(final Property p, final EntityInterface e) {
+    return (!p.isDescOverride()
         && !p.isNameOverride()
         && !p.isDatatypeOverride()
         && (!p.hasProperties() || hasUniquePropertyId(p, e))
-        && !(p.getDatatype() instanceof AbstractCollectionDatatype)) {
+        && !(p.getDatatype() instanceof AbstractCollectionDatatype));
+  }
+
+  private static void processPropertiesStage1(
+      final List<Property> stage1Inserts, final Property p, final EntityInterface e) {
+    if (noReplacementneeded(p, e)) {
       stage1Inserts.add(p);
       processSubPropertiesStage1(stage1Inserts, p);
     } else {
@@ -127,6 +141,9 @@ public class DatabaseUtils {
     }
   }
 
+  /*
+   * Returns true if the entity e has no other property with the same ID as the property p.
+   */
   private static boolean hasUniquePropertyId(final EntityInterface p, final EntityInterface e) {
     final EntityID id = p.getId();
     for (final EntityInterface p2 : e.getProperties()) {

src/main/java/org/caosdb/server/datatype/AbstractCollectionDatatype.java

@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractCollectionDatatype extends AbstractDatatype {
   private static HashMap<String, CollectionDatatypeFactory> instances =
       new HashMap<String, CollectionDatatypeFactory>();
   static Pattern p =
+      // with < and > this evaluates to: "^([^<]+)<([^>]+)>$"
       Pattern.compile(
           "^([^"
               + LEFT_DELIMITER