Bug 149251 Inconsistent Handling of a Non-inheritable ROM Property
For a ROM property defined to be non-inheritable, an empty string property value should be consistently handled as an empty string, not as null. For example, an oda.dataSource extension defines a data source property with canInherit=false. When a oda-data-source handle get saved in a report design, it correctly includes the tag for such property, even when an empty string value is specified. <oda-data-source extensionID="my.oda.plugin" name="my Data Source" id="24"> ... <property name="ApplicationServer"></property> </oda-data-source> However, later when using the DE API to read its property value, a null is returned. Then when the report design is subsequently saved, the property tag is lost. Expects that an empty string value of a non-inhertiable property should be preserved.
model/org.eclipse.birt.report.model/src/org/eclipse/birt/report/model/command/PropertyCommand.java
* @throws SemanticException
	 *             if the old item is not found or this property type is not
	 *             structure list.
	 */
	public void replaceItem( MemberRef ref, IStructure oldItem,
			IStructure newItem ) throws SemanticException
	{
		assert ref != null;
		PropertyDefn propDefn = ref.getPropDefn( );
		assert propDefn != null;
		assertExtendedElement( module, element, propDefn );
		checkListMemberRef( ref );
		List list = ref.getList( module, element );
		if ( list == null )
			throw new PropertyValueException( element, ref.getPropDefn( ),
					null,
					PropertyValueException.DESIGN_EXCEPTION_ITEM_NOT_FOUND );
		if ( newItem != null )
		{
			checkItem( ref, newItem );
			element.checkStructureList( module, ref.getPropDefn( ), list,
					newItem );
		}
		ActivityStack stack = module.getActivityStack( );
		stack.startTrans( ModelMessages
				.getMessage( MessageConstants.REPLACE_ITEM_MESSAGE ) );
		makeLocalCompositeValue( ref );
		list = ref.getList( module, element );
		assert list != null;
		int index = list.indexOf( oldItem );