DataServices experts, We are currently stumped on how to configure our data-management config to address a very specific data model that we have. I would love to get some ideas/feedback on how to solve this dilemma. Here is our problem (as simplified as possible).
We have a number of objects that extend a root object like so: PetsVO(root object) extended by: - DogVO - CatVO - BirdVO - FishVO - RatVO Here is the problem. Each object can hold a collection of pet's objects. So in a social networking way, each pet can be linked to its pet friends. DogVO - holds collection of PetVO's CatVO - holds collection of PetVO's BirdVO - holds collection of PetVO's ... you get the idea. So, how do with deal with this in our destinations?? Option 1) Hierarchical management. - This works conceptually of course since no association tags are required to link the destinations together. However, we then have major scaling issues & no way to throttle individual destinations, etc... Not really a working solution unless your model was truly as simple as the one I am describing. Option 2) Use destinations to manage relationships. We set up destinations for each of these sub classes: dogs cats birds fish rats However, how do we associate the PetVO collection in each? <many-to-many property="pets" destination="???????" lazy="true" /> THOUGHT 1: If we have a pets destination and set up a "many-to-many" tag from "dogs" to "pets" then we create the problem where we are managing the same object in two different places. Plus when we add a "CatVO" to a "pets" collection in a "dogs" destination (as an example) DataServices initializes a createItem in the "pets" destination not knowing that the object already exists as part of the "cats" destination...not good. THOUGHT 2: We could set up a "many-to-many" tag in dogs to "cats"...however this obviously won't work when someone then adds a BirdVO to the collection. What to do?... I realize this is a silly example, but hopefully it illustrates the problem of integrating an object model which uses a lot of Base or Root objects into DataServices. Is there something we are missing or not understanding about how we could set this up? I would be interested to see if anyone has any solutions. (I should note that we are using Hibernate with Annotations.) Thanks for your help we look forward to any of your ideas, Kevin
