RE: modifying relationship list

From: Gentry, Michael \(Contractor\) ("Gentry,)
Date: Tue Jun 20 2006 - 13:04:28 EDT

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    I think we drifted off a bit. The
    removeObjectFromBothSidesOfRelationshipWithKey() method is in EOF, not
    in Cayenne. Cayenne uses a cover method which provides stronger typing
    over another method which uses weaker typing. You could use the weaker
    one if you wanted. If you look at your _ classes, down near the bottom
    where Cayenne generates the relationship methods, you'll see the covers.

    For to-one relationships:

    setToOneTarget(String, Object, true)

    For to-many relationships:

    addToManyTarget(String, Object, true)
    removeToManyTarget(String, Object, true)

    The String is the relationship key you defined for use in Cayenne
    Modeler. So, for a Loan record, you might have:

    public void addToLoans(Loan obj)
    {
      addToManyTarget("loans", obj, true);
    }
    public void removeFromLoans(Loan obj)
    {
      removeToManyTarget("loans", obj, true);
    }

    Regardless of if you use the stronger or weaker typed method, it still
    updates both sides of the relationship automatically. There is no
    functional difference in the way the two operate. One simply provides
    stronger data typing (the "external" method) compared to the other (the
    "internal" method).

    /dev/mrg

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Craig.Russel..un.COM [mailto:Craig.Russell@Sun.COM]
    Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 12:25 PM
    To: cayenne-use..ncubator.apache.org
    Subject: Re: modifying relationship list

    I hate to be a curmudgeon, but it sounds like this might go in the
    wrong direction, if I understand correctly. You need two sets of
    functionality: one that the user sees and transparently updates both
    sides of the relationship; the other, internal, that is called by the
    external methods and individually updates only one side. Many users
    would see void add(Room theRoom) and expect to call it instead of
    void removeObjectFromBothSidesOfRelationshipWithKey(Room theRoom,
    Site theSite). Or perhaps it's really static void
    RelationshipHelper.removeObjectFromBothSidesOfRelationshipWithKey
    (Object oneSide, Object theOtherSide) which can be called from any
    context and has to be omniscient.

    If the removeObjectFromBothSidesOfRelationshipWithKey is intended to
    be the user-visible method, then it's very descriptive. Is this the
    user-visible method?

    By the way, this is one case where I really miss the "friend"
    annotation of C++. You don't want the internal methods to be visible
    to users, just to the classes on the other side of the relationship.
    Nothing like this semantic exists for Java. :-(

    Craig

    On Jun 20, 2006, at 6:04 AM, Gentry, Michael (Contractor) wrote:

    > Monstrous? That was my favorite method name! It stated precisely
    > what
    > it was doing, too. :-) We hardly ever removed anything, so never got
    > to use removeObjectFromBothSidesOfRelationshipWithKey all that much.
    > Sigh.
    >
    > /dev/mrg
    >
    > PS. For me, it was actually
    > addObject:toBothSidesOfRelationshipWithKey:
    > ... Much better.
    >
    >
    >
    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Andrus Adamchik [mailto:andru..bjectstyle.org]
    > Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 2:19 AM
    > To: cayenne-use..ncubator.apache.org
    > Subject: Re: modifying relationship list
    >
    >
    >>
    >> "Someone" should write a paper.
    >
    > Yep :-)
    >
    > I recall back in my WebObjects/EOF days, instead of using property
    > setters I always used a generic method with monstrous name of the
    > Objective C heritage - "addObjectToBothSidesOfRelationshipWithKey"
    > and its counterpart "removeObjectFromBothSidesOfRelationshipWithKey"
    > exactly because it helped with graph consistency.
    >
    > So bidirectional relationship management was one of the first
    > features in the early Cayenne to address that.
    >
    > Andrus
    >
    >
    > On Jun 19, 2006, at 8:51 PM, Craig L Russell wrote:
    >
    >> Hi,
    >>
    >> This relationship change issue is a very old one in object modeling
    >> and made even more interesting when mapping to a relational
    >> database, where typically there is only one database column value
    >> that represents both sides of the relationship.
    >>
    >> Among the standards for persistence (J2EE CMP, JDO 1, JDO 2, and
    >> EJB3) the requirements are all over the map, with little to guide
    >> you.
    >>
    >> CMP defines the behavior as I understand Cayenne currently
    >> implements it. That is, the relationship on the other side is
    >> silently changed to be consistent.
    >>
    >> JDO 1 is silent on the issue.
    >>
    >> JDO 2 defines the behavior as "undefined until commit or flush", at
    >> which point the relationships on both sides are silently changed to
    >> be consistent.
    >>
    >> EJB3 is silent, and allows relationships to be inconsistent after
    >> commit.
    >>
    >> I believe it is tricky to code defensively if you want to manage
    >> relationships in memory. The issue is the possibility of updating
    >> the relationship from either side. The apparently straightforward
    >> technique is to implement the Room.setSite method to call
    >> oldRoom.remove(this) and newRoom.add(this). And the Site.remove
    >> method to call theRoom.setSite(null) and Site.add method to call
    >> theRoom.setSite(this). But this causes recursion, unless you use
    >> special add, remove, and set methods, that need to be protected
    >> from public callers. That is, define package protected methods
    >> uncoordinatedAdd, uncoordinatedRemove, and uncoordinatedSet that
    >> don't manage the other side, but are called from within the public-
    >> visible implementations of add, remove, and set. But clearly this
    >> is a lot of work for developers, so it's nice that the persistence
    >> implementation does some of the hard work for you.
    >>
    >> "Someone" should write a paper.
    >>
    >> Craig
    >>
    >> On Jun 19, 2006, at 1:12 AM, Tomi NA wrote:
    >>
    >>> On 6/19/06, Marcin Skladaniec <marci..sh.com.au> wrote:
    >>>> Hello
    >>>> Just run into interesting cayenne feature.
    >>>>
    >>>> This code:
    >>>>
    >>>> rooms = site.getRooms();
    >>>> rooms.remove(aRoom);
    >>>>
    >>>> would alter the relationship
    >>>>
    >>>> so aRoom.getSite() is now null
    >>>>
    >>>> I'm wondering if this is a desired effect ?
    >>>> This behavior might cause bugs. When someone actually puts code to
    >>>> know the fact of relationship being changed (ie. put code into Room
    >>>> setSite() and Site add/removeFromRooms()/setRooms() methods ) he
    >>>> might be disappointed, as those methods would not run, but the
    >>>> relationship will change...
    >>>
    >>> I'm wrestling with this issue myself: I've extended the basic
    >>> templates so that events are fired on setter calls, but this
    >>> practice
    >>> has the exact shortcomings you pointed out.
    >>> Is there a very good reason why cayenne objects don't fire events
    >>> on a
    >>> lower level (circumventing this problem) out of the box?
    >>> Alternatively, if I expand my object code generation templates
    >>> further
    >>> so that objectA.removeFrom(objectB) fires a property change event
    >>> for
    >>> it's objectA.getBArray() as well as objectB.getToA() - will this
    >>> completely solve the problem?
    >>>
    >>> t.n.a.
    >>
    >> Craig Russell
    >> Architect, Sun Java Enterprise System http://java.sun.com/products/
    >> jdo
    >> 408 276-5638 mailto:Craig.Russel..un.com
    >> P.S. A good JDO? O, Gasp!
    >>
    >

    Craig Russell
    Architect, Sun Java Enterprise System http://java.sun.com/products/jdo
    408 276-5638 mailto:Craig.Russel..un.com
    P.S. A good JDO? O, Gasp!



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