NIFI-15196 - Improve Content Viewer resolution based on MIME Type

[pvillard31]

Summary

NIFI-15196 - Improve Content Viewer resolution based on MIME Type

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[exceptionfactory]

Thanks for proposing this improvement @pvillard31.

On initial review, I'm concerned about introducing a new REST API method for this purpose, as it raises other questions about how Content Viewers are registered. It may be better to consider an approach that allows a Content Viewer to register for a MIME Type pattern, versus a specific type.

The Spring Web framework also has a powerful Media Type class that supports some of the matching against vendor extended types, which may be worth considering for implementation.

I plan to take a closer look in the near future,

[pvillard31]

I explored different approaches and it felt like the best approach with minimal changes while having all of this logic in a central place and reduce specific logic on the frontend side. I didn't look into built-in Spring capabilities, I can have a look at what could be the option there. But I think some API changes are required in any case, either with this new one or by changing the existing one but not sure that is desirable.

[exceptionfactory]

Thanks for the reply. My main initial concern is the new REST API method, as it adds another round trip for something that can be selected, although the resolution could be helpful in some scenarios.

[pvillard31]

Yeah, I do see a potential approach when content viewers are registered instead and have a pattern there. Let me give this a try.

[pvillard31]

Well, I don't see any good option in the end to have all of the logic on the backend side. The simplest approach would be to add the patterns directly into the file https://github.com/apache/nifi/blob/main/nifi-extension-bundles/nifi-standard-bundle/nifi-standard-content-viewer/src/main/webapp/META-INF/nifi-content-viewer and then do the pattern matching on the frontend side. I guess that could be OK but we are back at the discussion in the comments on the issue.

[pvillard31]

I pushed a commit to switch to the very simple approach as a way to discuss both approaches.

[exceptionfactory]

Thanks for the alternative approach @pvillard31.

I will take a closer look at options, but it does seem like something along the simplified compatible check is a better option.

At a high level, a MIME Type such as application/vnd.something+json is fundamentally application/json, and that holds true of substituting anything for vnd.something with the + character. From that perspective, if a Content Viewer indicates support for application/json, it automatically supports any extension and should not necessarily need to include a pattern for matching. As you have in the simplified approach, this does put more responsibility on the frontend viewer to implement the compatibility checking, but that seems reasonable given the direct equivalence of extended types.

I would look for more input from others on the frontend side before getting too far, but this does help move the discussion forward to something tangible.