Nesting attributes in MBeans - Stupid Newbie Question

[toddrun]

I just got my first MBean to run (much easier than I expected). Now I'm trying to figure out how to really use MBeans.

Is there are way to either:
1) nest "attributes" in the -service.xml file
2) use the same attribute more than once and have the values placed into an array or collection?

For example, my little first try has:
Sam

And I either want:
Sam
HR

Mary
Accounting

which I doubt will work, so I could also work with:
Sam
HR
Mary
Accouting
The second option means that the admin is going to have to be really really careful to make sure Name/Depts are in the right order (which is why I don't like it as much).

Hopefully this gives an idea of what I'm trying to accomplish. Any suggestions are very much appreciated!

[adrian.brock]

You can specify an array, there is a property
editor for String arrays at least.

It was broken for a while, but you should be
able to get the fixed version from cvs.

The service configurator tries to convert the
text for an attribute into the correct type of the
MBean attribute.

Property editors aren't difficult to write.
See the java beans docs or look at the jboss
examples.
You could write one that converts a comma separated
value into an ArrayList for example.

The property editors are also used by the jmx-console.

Regards,
Adrian

[toddrun]

So, I've taken my simple MBean and changed the one attribute, which was a String type and changed it to String[].

I can deploy the MBean and the -service.xml file, but the value I get (still just using a single tag in the -service.xml file) is [Ljava.lang.String;@dcdffc and the Type in the MBean view is [Ljava.lang.String;

Is this the "broken" behavior, or have I mucked it up? BTW, I'm running jboss3.0.4 with tomcat4.1.1 on a RedHat 7.2 system.