JavaScript to Java Conversion Limitation in vRO

When vRealize Orchestrator runs scripts, the vCenter Server plug-in converts JavaScript arrays to Java arrays of a fixed size. As a result, you cannot add new values to vCenter Server data objects that take arrays as property values. You can create an object that takes an array as a property if you instantiate that object by passing it a pre-filled array. However, after you instantiate the object, you cannot add values to the array.

For example, the following code does not work:

var spec = new VcVirtualMachineConfigSpec();
spec.deviceChange = [];
spec.deviceChange[0] = new VcVirtualDeviceConfigSpec();
System.log(spec.deviceChange[0]); //Output undefined

In the above code, vRealize Orchestrator converts the empty spec.deviceChange JavaScript array into the fixed-size Java array VirtualDeviceConfigSpec[] before it calls setDeviceChange(). When calling spec.deviceChange[0] = new VcVirtualDeviceConfigSpec(), vRealize Orchestrator calls getDeviceChange() and the array remains a fixed, empty Java array.

Workaround: Declare the array as a local variable:

var spec = new VcVirtualMachineConfigSpec();
var deviceSpec = [];
deviceSpec[0] = new VcVirtualDeviceConfigSpec();
spec.deviceChange = deviceSpec;
System.log(spec.deviceChange[0]);
/* Output
DynamicWrapper (Instance) : [VcVirtualDeviceConfigSpec]-[class com.vmware.o11n.plugin.vsphere_gen.VirtualDeviceSpec_Wrapper] -- VALUE : (vim.vm.device.VirtualDeviceSpec) {
   dynamicType = null,
   dynamicProperty = null,
   operation = null,
   fileOperation = null,
   device = null,
   profile = null,
   backing = null
}
*/

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Disclaimer This article is drawn from Release Notes of vRealize Orchestrator 8.x and is added here just for educational purposes.

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