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.NET Entity Objects

http://neo.codehaus.org

Patterns and Best Practices

Copyright 2002-2003 Erik Drnenburg Last updated: December 2003

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Contents

1. Use protected relations 2. Provide custom queries 3. Provide transparent many-to-many relations

4. Use entity maps sparingly

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Use protected relations

Task: Given a publisher find all its titles Worst case: Implementation using factories directly in code-behind or some controller.
MyController.cs TitleFactory f = new TitleFactory(myContext); TitleList l = f.Find("Publisher = {0}", pub);

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Use protected relations

Improvement 1: Declare an iref in schema and use public relation.

MyController.cs TitleRelation l = pub.Titles;

or a copy if it
MyController.cs

TitleList l = new TitleList(pub.Titles);

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Use protected relations

Improvement 2: Make relation protected (in the template for base classes) and provide accessors
Publisher.cs
public TitleList GetTitles() { return new TitleList(this.Titles); } public void AddTitle(Title aTitle) { this.Titles.Add(aTitle); } MyController.cs TitleList l = pub.GetTitles();

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Provide custom queries

Task: Given a publisher find all its titles with additional criterion

Worst case: Implementation using qualifiers directly in code-behind or some controller.

MyController.cs

TitleFactory f = new TitleFactory(myContext); TitleList l = f.Find("Publisher = {0}" + "and Royalties > 1000", pub);

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Provide custom queries

Improvement 1: Move code into entity object.

Publisher.cs public TitleList GetTitlesWithMinRoyalty(int r) { /* several options */ } MyController.cs

l = pub.GetTitlesWithMinRoyalty(1000);

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Provide custom queries

Option 1: Move query as is.

Publisher.cs public TitleList GetTitlesWithMinRoyalty(int r) { TitleFactory f = new TitleFactory(Context); TitleList l = f.Find("Publisher = {0}" + "and Royalty > {1}", this, r); return l; }

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Provide custom queries

Option 2: Use internal relation; elegant and caching behaviour but has to bring all titles for publisher into memory.
Publisher.cs

public TitleList GetTitlesWithMinRoyalty(int r) { return this.Titles.Find("Royalties > {0}", r); }

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Provide custom queries

Option 3: Use internal relation and handwrite loop with comparison; improved performance over option 2 but slightly more code.
Publisher.cs

public TitleList GetTitlesWithMinRoyalty(int r) { TitleList l = new TitleList(); foreach(Title t in this.Titles) if(t.Royalty > r) l.Add(t); return l; }

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Provide transparent many-to-many

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Task: Given a title find all its authors Solution: Add a method to Title.
Title.cs public AuthorList GetAuthors() { AuthorList l = new AuthorList (); foreach(TitleAuthor ta in this.TitleAuthors) l.Add(ta.Author); return l; }

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Provide transparent many-to-many

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Solution: Add a method to author and/or title.

Author.cs public void AddToTitle(Title title) { TitleAuthorFactory f = new Title(Context); TitleAuthor ta = f.CreateObject(title, this); } Title.cs public void AddAuthor(Author author) { TitleAuthorFactory f = new Title(Context); TitleAuthor ta = f.CreateObject(this, author); }

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EntityMaps

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Use entity maps sparingly and access through context:

IEntityMapFactory f = context.EntityMapFactory;
IEntityMap map = f.GetMap(typeof(Title));