v1.6.4: Boxed Sections parser + structured WorkHistory/Education blocks + bold KeyValue

Author: DemchaAV

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -3,6 +3,80 @@
 All notable changes to GraphCompose are documented here. Versions
 follow semantic versioning; release dates are ISO 8601.
 
+## v1.6.4 — Planned
+
+Bug fix + structured-block patch. Adds two new public Block types —
+`WorkHistoryBlock` and `EducationBlock` — that let template authors
+declare work-history and education entries with explicit (title,
+organisation, date, description) / (degree, institution, year,
+details) fields instead of relying on the legacy
+`MultiParagraphBlock` pipe-separated string parser. Also closes a
+Boxed Sections layout defect that bundled the date and description
+into the right-aligned date column for any author-supplied line that
+used an em-dash (`" — "`), en-dash (`" – "`), or contained
+prose-shaped content the parser misread as a date. **No public API
+break** — the sealed `Block` permit list grows from six to eight,
+existing `MultiParagraphBlock` work-history strings continue to
+parse, and the deprecated parser path stays in place for backward
+compatibility.
+
+### Templates — new structured blocks
+
+- **`WorkHistoryBlock`.** New public record block carrying a list of
+  `Item(title, organisation, date, description)` entries. The
+  `BoxedSections` preset renders each item as a structured row:
+  title bold on the left, date right-aligned on the same row,
+  organisation italic on the next line under the title, and
+  description as a full-width paragraph beneath. Other presets fall
+  back to a single concatenated paragraph per item. Authors who use
+  `WorkHistoryBlock` bypass the legacy
+  `BoxedSections#parseWorkEntry` heuristic parser entirely.
+- **`EducationBlock`.** New public record block carrying a list of
+  `Item(degree, institution, year, details)` entries. Renders with
+  the same structured layout as `WorkHistoryBlock` (degree bold
+  left, year right, institution italic, details paragraph) so
+  Education & Certifications sections visually match Professional
+  Experience.
+- **Sample data migrated.** `ExampleDataFactory.sampleCvSpecV2` now
+  uses `WorkHistoryBlock` for Professional Experience and
+  `EducationBlock` for Education & Certifications. The legacy
+  `MultiParagraphBlock` pattern remains supported and is exercised
+  by `PresetLayoutSnapshotTest` / `PresetVisualParityTest` to lock
+  the backward-compat path.
+
+### Templates — parser robustness (legacy path)
+
+- **`parseWorkEntry` accepts em-dash and en-dash.** Used to split
+  the post-pipe segment on ASCII `" - "` only; now tries `" — "`,
+  `" – "`, and `" - "` in order, mirroring `splitHeading`. Authors
+  who typed `"*2024-Present* — Led reusable document flows."` saw
+  the whole tail collapse into the date column — this no longer
+  happens.
+- **`parseWorkEntry` rejects prose dressed up as a date.** The
+  loose `looksLikeDate` check accepted any string containing a
+  year and a hyphen anywhere, which caused education lines like
+  `"... | 2019. First-class honours. Specialisation ..."` to
+  parse as work entries (the hyphen inside `"First-class"` was
+  enough to satisfy the heuristic). Parser now rejects post-pipe
+  segments that contain sentence-ending punctuation (`.`, `:`,
+  `;`) when no explicit date / description separator was found,
+  letting these lines fall back to plain paragraph rendering.
+  Marked `@Deprecated` with a `@deprecated` Javadoc pointing
+  callers to `WorkHistoryBlock` / `EducationBlock`.
+- **`parseProjectItem`** picks up the same em-dash / en-dash /
+  ASCII separator set so future Project items typed with em-dash
+  don't regress into "title only" rendering.
+
+### Tests
+
+- `BlockTest.blockSealingPermitsAllEightVariants` updated for the
+  two new permitted block types.
+- `PresetVisualGalleryTest.sampleSpec` migrated to
+  `WorkHistoryBlock` so the visible "primary example" exercises the
+  new structured shape.
+- `PresetLayoutSnapshotTest` intentionally retained on
+  `MultiParagraphBlock` to lock the legacy parser's behaviour.
+
 ## v1.6.3 — 2026-05-22
 
 Bug fix patch. Closes two independent hyperlink clickable-area

examples/src/main/java/com/demcha/examples/support/ExampleDataFactory.java

@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 package com.demcha.examples.support;
 
 import com.demcha.compose.document.templates.blocks.BulletListBlock;
+import com.demcha.compose.document.templates.blocks.EducationBlock;
 import com.demcha.compose.document.templates.blocks.IndentedBlock;
 import com.demcha.compose.document.templates.blocks.KeyValueBlock;
 import com.demcha.compose.document.templates.blocks.MultiParagraphBlock;
 import com.demcha.compose.document.templates.blocks.ParagraphBlock;
+import com.demcha.compose.document.templates.blocks.WorkHistoryBlock;
 import com.demcha.compose.document.templates.coverletter.spec.CoverLetterHeader;
 import com.demcha.compose.document.templates.coverletter.spec.CoverLetterSpec;
 import com.demcha.compose.document.templates.cv.spec.CvHeader;
@@ -286,16 +288,32 @@ public static CvSpec sampleCvSpecV2() {
                                 "**Distribution:** Maven Central, Sonatype OSSRH, GPG signing, "
                                         + "JitPack, semantic versioning discipline"))))
                 .module(CvModule.of("Education & Certifications",
-                        new MultiParagraphBlock(List.of(
-                                "**MSc Computer Science** - University of Manchester | 2021. "
-                                        + "Distinction. Thesis: *Composable layout primitives for "
-                                        + "deterministic document rendering*.",
-                                "**BSc Software Engineering** - Imperial College London | 2019. "
-                                        + "First-class honours. Specialisation in compilers and "
-                                        + "static analysis.",
-                                "**Oracle Java Certification** - Professional track | 2023. "
-                                        + "Java 17 platform deep-dive: records, sealed types, "
-                                        + "pattern matching, virtual threads."))))
+                        // Preferred: structured EducationBlock with
+                        // explicit (degree, institution, year, details)
+                        // fields. BoxedSections renders each item with
+                        // the same structured layout as Professional
+                        // Experience — degree bold left, year right,
+                        // institution italic on the next line, and
+                        // details as a full-width paragraph below.
+                        new EducationBlock(List.of(
+                                new EducationBlock.Item(
+                                        "MSc Computer Science",
+                                        "University of Manchester",
+                                        "2021",
+                                        "Distinction. Thesis: *Composable layout primitives "
+                                                + "for deterministic document rendering*."),
+                                new EducationBlock.Item(
+                                        "BSc Software Engineering",
+                                        "Imperial College London",
+                                        "2019",
+                                        "First-class honours. Specialisation in compilers and "
+                                                + "static analysis."),
+                                new EducationBlock.Item(
+                                        "Oracle Java Certification",
+                                        "Professional track",
+                                        "2023",
+                                        "Java 17 platform deep-dive: records, sealed types, "
+                                                + "pattern matching, virtual threads.")))))
                 .module(CvModule.of("Projects",
                         new BulletListBlock(List.of(
                                 "**GraphCompose (Java 21, PDFBox, Maven, JMH)** - "
@@ -316,23 +334,40 @@ public static CvSpec sampleCvSpecV2() {
                                         + "GraphCompose: cinematic covers, pull quotes, "
                                         + "multi-column flow, sidebar callouts."))))
                 .module(CvModule.of("Professional Experience",
-                        new MultiParagraphBlock(List.of(
-                                "**Senior Platform Engineer**, Northwind Systems | "
-                                        + "*2024-Present* - Led the reusable document-generation "
-                                        + "platform serving billing, hiring, and reporting flows "
-                                        + "across **8 product teams**. Reduced template "
-                                        + "maintenance time by **70%** by retiring per-team "
-                                        + "PDF scripts in favour of one canonical engine.",
-                                "**Software Engineer**, BrightLeaf Labs | *2021-2024* - Built "
-                                        + "backend services and production document rendering "
-                                        + "pipelines processing **2M+ documents per month**. "
-                                        + "Drove the migration from iText to a custom layout "
-                                        + "engine, eliminating licensing risk and cutting "
-                                        + "p99 render latency from 1.4s to 380ms.",
-                                "**Backend Engineer**, Helix Print Co | *2019-2021* - "
-                                        + "Maintained a high-volume invoice-printing service "
-                                        + "(15M PDFs/year) and authored the compliance test "
-                                        + "harness that gated every template change."))))
+                        // Preferred: structured WorkHistoryBlock with
+                        // explicit (title, organisation, date,
+                        // description) fields. BoxedSections renders
+                        // each item as a structured row (title bold
+                        // left, date right, organisation italic on the
+                        // next line, description full-width below)
+                        // without falling back to the legacy
+                        // pipe-separated string parser.
+                        new WorkHistoryBlock(List.of(
+                                new WorkHistoryBlock.Item(
+                                        "Senior Platform Engineer",
+                                        "Northwind Systems",
+                                        "2024-Present",
+                                        "Led the reusable document-generation platform serving "
+                                                + "billing, hiring, and reporting flows across "
+                                                + "**8 product teams**. Reduced template maintenance "
+                                                + "time by **70%** by retiring per-team PDF scripts "
+                                                + "in favour of one canonical engine."),
+                                new WorkHistoryBlock.Item(
+                                        "Software Engineer",
+                                        "BrightLeaf Labs",
+                                        "2021-2024",
+                                        "Built backend services and production document rendering "
+                                                + "pipelines processing **2M+ documents per month**. "
+                                                + "Drove the migration from iText to a custom layout "
+                                                + "engine, eliminating licensing risk and cutting "
+                                                + "p99 render latency from 1.4s to 380ms."),
+                                new WorkHistoryBlock.Item(
+                                        "Backend Engineer",
+                                        "Helix Print Co",
+                                        "2019-2021",
+                                        "Maintained a high-volume invoice-printing service "
+                                                + "(15M PDFs/year) and authored the compliance test "
+                                                + "harness that gated every template change.")))))
                 .module(CvModule.of("Additional Information",
                         new KeyValueBlock(List.of(
                                 new KeyValueBlock.Entry("Languages",

src/main/java/com/demcha/compose/document/templates/blocks/Block.java

@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
  *
  * <p>The sealed permit list is intentionally exhaustive: every body
  * shape that a CV / cover-letter / invoice / proposal preset can
- * declare today is one of the six concrete records. To add a new body
- * shape, extend the {@code permits} list and update the Module
+ * declare today is one of the eight concrete records. To add a new
+ * body shape, extend the {@code permits} list and update the Module
  * composer to handle the new variant.</p>
  *
  * <p>Block records are immutable and safe to reuse across documents.</p>
@@ -23,5 +23,7 @@ public sealed interface Block
                 NumberedListBlock,
                 IndentedBlock,
                 KeyValueBlock,
-                MultiParagraphBlock {
+                MultiParagraphBlock,
+                WorkHistoryBlock,
+                EducationBlock {
 }

src/main/java/com/demcha/compose/document/templates/blocks/EducationBlock.java

@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+package com.demcha.compose.document.templates.blocks;
+
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Objects;
+
+/**
+ * A {@link Block} that captures a stack of education / certification
+ * entries with each field (degree, institution, year, details)
+ * supplied separately so presets can place them precisely without
+ * re-parsing a concatenated source string.
+ *
+ * <p>This is the <strong>preferred shape</strong> for "Education",
+ * "Education &amp; Certifications", "Qualifications" or any module
+ * whose body is a list of degree / course entries. The
+ * {@code BoxedSections} preset renders each {@link Item} with the
+ * same structured layout as {@code WorkHistoryBlock}: degree bold on
+ * the left, year right-aligned on the same row, institution italic
+ * on the next line under the degree, and details as a full-width
+ * paragraph beneath. Other presets fall back to a single inline
+ * paragraph per item.</p>
+ *
+ * <p><strong>Legacy alternative.</strong> Authors may still pass
+ * education as a {@link MultiParagraphBlock} of pipe-separated
+ * strings — e.g.
+ * {@code "**Degree** - Institution | Year. Details..."} — and the
+ * legacy parser tries to interpret them. Prefer
+ * {@code EducationBlock} in new code: the structured fields are
+ * explicit, do not depend on the parser's separator and date
+ * heuristics (which over-trigger on prose containing stray hyphens
+ * like "First-class"), and survive copy-paste from spreadsheets
+ * without quoting concerns.</p>
+ *
+ * @param items education entries in source order, most-recent-first
+ *              by convention (must not be null; may be empty;
+ *              individual items must not be null)
+ */
+public record EducationBlock(List<Item> items) implements Block {
+
+    /**
+     * Compact constructor that defensively copies the supplied list and
+     * validates that no item reference is null.
+     *
+     * @throws NullPointerException if {@code items} or any element is
+     *                              null
+     */
+    public EducationBlock {
+        Objects.requireNonNull(items, "items");
+        items = List.copyOf(items);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * One row in an education stack. All four fields are required
+     * non-null strings but may be blank — a blank {@code institution}
+     * collapses the subtitle line, a blank {@code details} collapses
+     * the body paragraph, and a blank {@code year} renders the degree
+     * row without a right-aligned year column.
+     *
+     * @param degree      degree / qualification name, e.g.
+     *                    {@code "MSc Computer Science"} or
+     *                    {@code "Oracle Java Certification"}
+     * @param institution awarding institution, e.g.
+     *                    {@code "University of Manchester"} or
+     *                    {@code "Professional track"}
+     * @param year        year or year range, e.g. {@code "2021"},
+     *                    {@code "2018-2021"}
+     * @param details     additional details (honours, thesis,
+     *                    specialisation, course content); free prose,
+     *                    may contain inline markdown
+     *                    ({@code **bold**}, {@code *italic*})
+     */
+    public record Item(String degree, String institution, String year, String details) {
+
+        /**
+         * Compact constructor: rejects null fields. Use empty strings
+         * for absent values rather than null.
+         */
+        public Item {
+            Objects.requireNonNull(degree, "degree");
+            Objects.requireNonNull(institution, "institution");
+            Objects.requireNonNull(year, "year");
+            Objects.requireNonNull(details, "details");
+        }
+    }
+}