232 post entity will not completely override the existing entity

[djs0109]

closes #232

[djs0109]

@tstorek by checking this issue, I found that the patch_entity() function is very heavy. And its behavior is more like a PUT request. Do you have an idea about that?

[tstorek]

@djs0109 The reason for patch_entity is that Orion does not support partial updates. (Maybe using complex query). Hence, we introduced this one to allow for the functionality. Hence, it should merge both contents. And only overwriting those that should be updated or appended.

[djs0109]

@tstorek By "partially update," do you mean like to send only a part of the attributes in the payload, and then Orion will only update the included attributes (and other attributes will not be changed)? If not, it would be great if you can add a simple implementation here

FiLiP/tests/clients/test_ngsi_v2_cb.py

Line 244 in d606818

def test_entity_update(self):

[RCX112]

There are only some small comments from my side :)

[RCX112]

@djs0109 After each step (so after post, update_entity and override_entity) I would clear the OCB and reset the variable attr_append:

clear_all(fiware_header=self.fiware_header, cb_url=settings.CB_URL)
attr_append = NamedContextAttribute(**{
    "name": 'pressure',
    "type": 'Number',
    "value": 1050})

[djs0109]

Good call. I add the clear_all, and use attr_append_update for updating attribute, so that the attr_append will not be touched during the whole test.

[RCX112]

@djs0109 This call still makes an update to the entity. So we could add the follwing assertion:

self.assertEqual(client.get_entity(entity_id=entity_update.id),
                                 entity_update)

[djs0109]

You are right, I thought that the request will be completely blocked

[RCX112]

@djs0109 The patch function can also delete attributes from an entity with the DELETE request

[djs0109]

Yes. Currently it is possible. But right now patch_entity works more like a put_entity. But I will remove the todos here and maybe open another issue

[djs0109]

@tstorek It seems that the patch end points are supported now in orion v2 check the section PATCH /v2/entities/{entityId}/attrs in https://fiware-orion.readthedocs.io/en/master/orion-api.html . If I understand correctly, the real functionality of patch is implemented in update_existing_entity_attributes. Do you think it is a good idea to rename the methods to avoid missunderstanding? But the decision should be irrelevant for this issue

[RCX112]

@djs0109 I have only one small comment on the line

FiLiP/tests/clients/test_ngsi_v2_cb.py

Line 221 in b6c1d76

client.get_entity(entity_id=self.entity.id, attrs=['temperature'])

because it does not do very much. You can maybe make an assertion out of it like
self.assertEqual(res_entity, client.get_entity(entity_id=self.entity.id, attrs=['temperature'])). I think we can merge after this.

[djs0109]

@RCX112 Thank you for the suggestion! But I think that will make the test a bit more hard-coded, because if we later add another initial attribute (e.g. "pressure") in self.entity, the code you suggested will not work. What do you think? If you think this point is critical, I can still change it.

[RCX112]

@djs0109 Maybe you could change the line to something like this pseudo code:
self.assertEqual(res_entity, client.get_entity(entity_id=self.entity.id, attrs=get_all_attributes_of_self.entity)). This should be more flexible. If we keep the line as it is, this code only test the excecution without looking at the result.

[djs0109]

@RCX112 Fair point :) I added it like that

[RCX112]

@djs0109 I think the branch is ready to merge :)