NIFI-1078 Fixing the 'now' EL documentation

Signed-off-by: Mark Payne <markap14@hotmail.com>
This commit is contained in:
jpercivall 2016-01-26 17:11:27 -05:00 committed by Mark Payne
parent f70f7e3447
commit 23364f554c
1 changed files with 22 additions and 15 deletions

View File

@ -190,8 +190,12 @@ Language supports four different data types:
- *String*: A String is a sequence of characters that can consist of numbers, letters, white space, and
special characters.
- *Number*: A Number is an integer comprised of one or more digits (`0` through `9`). The Expression Language
does not provide support for fractional numbers. Dates and times are represented in the
Expression Language as Numbers, representing the number of milliseconds since midnight GMT on January 1, 1970.
does not provide support for fractional numbers. When converting to numbers from Date data types, they are represented as
the number of milliseconds since midnight GMT on January 1, 1970.
- *Date*: A Date is an object that holds a Date and Time. Utilizing the <<dates>> and <<type_cast>> functions this data
type can be converted to/from Strings and numbers. If the whole Expression Language expression is evaluated to be a
date then it will be converted to a String with the format: "<Day of Week> <Month> <Day of Month> <Hour>:<Minute>:<Second> <Time Zone> <Year>".
Also expressed as "E MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy" in Java SimpleDateFormat format. For example: "Wed Dec 31 12:00:04 UTC 2016".
- *Boolean*: A Boolean is one of either `true` or `false`.
All attributes are considered to be of type String.
@ -1338,10 +1342,9 @@ Expressions will provide the following results:
[.function]
=== toDate
*Description*: [.description]#Converts a String into a Number, based on the format specified by the argument. The argument
must be a String that is a valid Java SimpleDateFormat syntax. The Subject is expected to be a String
that is formatted according the argument. The return value is the number of milliseconds since
Midnight GMT on January 1, 1970.#
*Description*: [.description]#Converts a String into a Date data type, based on the format specified by the argument. The argument
must be a String that is a valid Java SimpleDateFormat syntax. The Subject is expected to be a String that is formatted
according the argument.#
*Subject Type*: [.subject]#String#
@ -1350,12 +1353,12 @@ Expressions will provide the following results:
- [.argName]#_format_# : [.argDesc]#The current format to use when parsing the Subject, in the Java SimpleDateFormat syntax.#
*Return Type*: [.returnType]#Number#
*Return Type*: [.returnType]#Date#
*Examples*: If the attribute "year" has the value "2014" and the attribute "time" has the value "2014/12/31 15:36:03.264Z",
then the Expression `${year:toDate('yyyy')}` will return the number of milliseconds between Midnight GMT on January 1, 1970
and Midnight GMT on January 1, 2014. The Expression `${time:toDate("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'")}` will result in the
number of milliseconds between Midnight GMT on January 1, 1970 and 15:36:03.264 GMT on December 31, 2014.
then the Expression `${year:toDate('yyyy')}` will return a Date data type with a value representing Midnight GMT on
January 1, 2014. The Expression `${time:toDate("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'")}` will result in a Date data type for
15:36:03.264 GMT on December 31, 2014.
Often, this function is used in conjunction with the <<format>> function to change the format of a date/time. For example,
if the attribute "date" has the value "12-24-2014" and we want to change the format to "2014/12/24", we can do so by
@ -1367,18 +1370,22 @@ chaining together the two functions: `${date:toDate('MM-dd-yyyy'):format('yyyy/M
[.function]
=== now
*Description*: [.description]#The `now` function returns the current date and time as the number of milliseconds since Midnight GMT on
January 1, 1970.#
*Description*: [.description]#Returns the current date and time as a Date data type object.#
*Subject Type*: [.subjectless]#No Subject#
*Arguments*: No arguments
*Return Type*: [.returnType]#Number#
*Return Type*: [.returnType]#Date#
*Examples*: We can format the current date and time by using the `now` function in conjunction with the <<format>> function:
`${now():format('yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss')}`.
*Examples*: We can get the current date and time as a Date data type by using the `now` function: `${now()}`. As an example,
on Wednesday December 31st 2014 at 36 minutes after 3pm and 36.123 seconds EST `${now()}` would be evaluated to be a
Date type representing that time. Since whole Expression Language expressions can only return Strings it would formatted as
`Wed Dec 31 15:36:03 EST 2014` when the expression completes.
The utilizing the <<toNumber>> method, `now` can provide the current date and time as the number of milliseconds since
Midnight GMT on January 1, 1970. For instance, if instead of executing `${now()}` in the previous example `${now():toNumber()}`
was run then it would output `1453843201123`. This way preserves the millisecond field.