Kind of architecture question

[Carlos Peix]

Hi Shane,
 
I heard the "no access to repository from the domain objects" idea but I can't
do that in my daily work, I need to access repository from my domain. Besides
that, I use interfaces for all my repositories and I maintain the implementation
out of the domain model (reflection or DI is my glue), so I'm OK with that. I
just use the service layer to start and commit transactions.
 
Regarding if my main concern is an IBatis issue or not, I was told that IBatis
don't want to mess with internal identity maps and I can see why. It need ton
control object identity, concurrency, object context, etc.
 
I just want to know how the many programmers that use IBatis cope with that
problem.
 
Thanks
 
Carlos



  _____  

From: Shane Courtrille [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Lunes, 07 de Mayo de 2007 07:34 p.m.
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Kind of architecture question


Hey, Carlos.

Yes, I guess the name for it would be Identity Map.  I have a real concern with
having my domain objects call to my repository.  In my world that's the job of
my service layer.  To provide the "glue" that brings my domain and technical
services together.  But at the same time it would definitely solve this issue.  

I do think I disagree with this not being an iBatis issue.  My understanding is
that iBatis is suppose to provide a simple mapping solution that resolves 80% of
the work with 20% of the code.  I don't see how you can consider something this
simple as not being a very important part of that 80%.  I'm definitely looking
forward to a better solution to this problem if anyone can come up with one. 

Shane


On 5/7/07, Carlos Peix <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: 

Hi Shane, thanks for taking the time to answer.
 
Yes, you are talking about an Identity Map I guess, but this solution is harder
to implement and tune. It's my last resort though.
 
Of course, definitely the select="CustomerById" needs to be removed. In fact,
the command CustomerById uses a different cache that the command CustomerAll so,
if we use cache for both commands we can stop IBatis building different
instances.
 
One approach I used is for resolving this is implementing the
CustomerRepository.GetAll() with an IBatis query (cached) and the
CustomerRepository.GetById() resolved in memory. But I'm not very happy with
this solution either
 
Of course, the Order ResultMap just get the Customer Id and I resolve the
property getter or setter that way.
 
class Order {
 
    // This field is mapped in IBatis
    object customerId;
 
    // this is a transient field
    private Customer customer;
 
    public Customer Customer
    {
        get {
            if ( customer == null )
                customer = CustomerRepository.GetById( customerId );

            return customer;
        }

        set { customerId = value.Id; }
    }
 
}
 
Carlos


  _____  

From: Shane Courtrille [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Lunes, 07 de Mayo de 2007 07:03 p.m.
To: user-cs@ibatis.apache.org; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Kind of architecture question



I'm just learning iBatis.Net now but I have used the repository <-> mapper
pattern in the past.  Usually what I have done is have the repository contain a
reference to a cache.  It checks the cache before using the mapping layer to
retrieve the item.  The problem I see is your Order select="CustomerById".
Without knowing more about iBatis I would suggest you may need to remove that
and instead have your repository fill in the reference after it gets the Order.
Definitely not a solution I'm in love with though. 

Shane


On 5/7/07, Carlos Peix <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: 

Hi all,
 
I used IBatis.NET with success in various projects now but I am still not very
happy with my implementations. I'll try to explain my concerns.
 
My environment is .NET 1.1 but I think .NET 2.0 is the same thing. I should say
that I try to work guided by the DDD principles, so I access the final store
through repositories.
 
I have, for example, an entity Customer (aggregate root or simply a persistent
identifiable object) and a CustomerRepository with the following interface:
 
Customer CustomerRepository.GetById( object id );

IList CustomerRepository.GetAll(); 
...
 
and I also have a Order and OrderRepository with the following interface
 
OrderRepository.GetByNumber( int number );
...

 
The problem I face all the time with IBatis is the I get different instances if
I do:
 
// implemented with a Mapper.QueryForObject( "CustomerById", id );
Customer customer1 = CustomerRepository.GetById( object id );
 

// implemented with a Mapper.QueryForList( "CustomerAll" );
Customer customer2 = CustomerRepository.GetAll()[0]; 

 

// implemented with a Mapper.QueryForObject( "OrderByNumber", number );
// and Customer mapped this way in the OrderResultMap:
//  <result property="customer" column="CustomerId" select="CustomerById" />
Customer customer3 = OrderRepository.GetByNumber( 100 ).Customer;
 
But customer1.Id, customer2.Id and customer3.Id are the same.
 
Ok, this is a situation that need to be controlled, otherwise I could modify or
check different instances of the same object. I was told previously that this is
not an IBatis problem and I see why (in fact IBatis doesn't know anything about
object identity, so it can't control this).
 
The question is: how are you structuring your code to control that situation?
there are some "recommended practices"? I started with some ideas (one of them
include IBatis cache configuration) but I'm not happy with any of them.
 
Sorry about the long post and thanks in advance.

 
Carlos Peix