Service Operator "Flattens" Nested Lists

[MatKuhr]

Hi colleagues,

we noticed that if a service binding (e.g. identity service) has a property that is an array (e.g. domains), the property will be "flattened" into a single file.

E.g. Identity Service binding on CF:

"credentials": {
            .....
            "domains": [
                "accounts400.ondemand.com"
             ]
}

on K8s we have a file domains containing:

["accounts400.ondemand.com"]

This poses a problem. Because in the “flattened” version applications need to "know" which fields are arrays. An application can’t just assume any value wrapped in [ … ] will be an array, it might also just be part of the value. E.g. a client secret.

For applications, this is at least inconvenient. For libraries & tools, that support various services, it's a slightly bigger problem. Do you think this could be improved in the future?

Kind regards,
Matthias

[MatKuhr]

One additional point: The same problem is also relevant for nested JSON objects.

I don't know how that is handled at the moment, but I would guess:

"credentials": {
            .....
            "some-nested-object": {
                  "key": "val"
             }
} 

would result in a file some-nested-object containing:

{"key": "val"}

Again, with the same problem that we have in the list case.

[MatKuhr]

@jkbschmid was so kind to point me towards this option: #62

We'll try that out as well as a workaround. Still, guidance on a long-term solution would be great

[loewenstein]

@MatKuhr why would you consider #62 as a workaround instead of a solution?