Issue #261 - added a couple functions for JCascalog to call into since

[dkincaid]

it can't deal with ClojureFlow records. Added a test to check Api.compileFlow() method.

Also added synchronized keyword around all of the public static methods in Api.

Added Api.flowDef() method so that JCascalog can get a hold of the FlowDef object if desired.

[Quantisan]

@dkincaid is there downside to making all those methods synchronized?

[kyrill007]

There is really no downside to making these methods synchronized. The problem is that this Api class is completely stateful (inside wrapped clojure calls) and not-thread safe. We really need to put a Javadoc comment on this class explaining to users that any aggregate/compound operations on the Api class should be made within the context of Api.class lock (i.e. synchornized(Api.class) {...}). Making the methods synchronized only partially resolves the thread safety problem, users need to understand that Api class calls are often compound and it is precisely the compound coarse-grained invocations that should be guarded with a lock.

[dkincaid]

Could we get this merged into the code base before the next release?

[Quantisan]

@dkincaid @kyrill007 stating the nuance of the class in the javadoc sounds good to me. do you guys want to add a few comments into the docstring please?

[kyrill007]

I'll write the Javadocs for this class tomorrow.

[kyrill007]

Comments added.

[Quantisan]

thanks gentlemen!