Nested Properties and Property Paths in Composite Data Structures

vSphere Data objects can include properties that are defined as composite data types, such as data objects. The embedded data objects can also contain properties that are data objects. Properties can nest to several levels.

For example, the following figure shows a UML class diagram of the VirtualMachine managed object, which has a runtime property that is defined as an xsd:dateTime data type. VirtualMachine also has a summary property that is a VirtualMachineSummary data object. The VirtualMachineSummary data object contains a config property that is a VirtualMachineConfigSummary data object.

Figure 1. VirtualMachine Managed Object and Nested Properties

To refer to a nested property, use dot notation to separate the object names in the sequence that defines the path to the property. Your code must handle the type referenced at the end of the sequence.

For example, you can compare the property referenced by the path summary.config.guestId (a string value) to the property referenced in the path summary.config (the complete VirtualMachineSummary data object).

The following table shows examples of property references and the corresponding data types for some of the properties of the VirtualMachine managed object shown in VirtualMachine Managed Object and Nested Properties.

Reference	Data Type
summary	VirtualMachineSummary data object
summary.config	VirtualMachineConfigSummary data object
summary.config.guestID	string