The enumeration example I have on the wiki (which I used with Cayenne 1.2) allowed for human-suitable names that differed from the actual backend representation and allowed you to use localization for different presentations (useful in a web application). I'm not sure if that would be applicable in your situation, though. I wasn't even really promoting that feature for a native Cayenne implementation, but if there is a need for it ...
/dev/mrg On Jan 17, 2008 3:20 PM, Kevin Menard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 1/17/08 9:47 AM, "Michael Gentry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Ari, I was going to mention on the other thread (with Kevin) that it > > would be nice if you could map the enumerated values in Cayenne > > Modeler. I believe Andrus even mentioned keeping the mapping in the > > XML files, too. The modeler could generate the code for the enums, > > too, as you said. This would free the user from having to write the > > boilerplate code themselves. I still see needing two types of > > enumerations -- integer and string based values. I can't really see > > the need for floating point values at this time. > > Yes, what Ari mentioned sounds nice. > > I could see value in "composite" enums as well, though. I can't think of a > better term, but they're basically enums with fields that could then be > mapped to DB columns. > > For example, we use FedEx to process our shipments. The FedEx API has codes > for each service, but the codes are not really in a suitable form for a > customer. So, we store the code and the textual description as two columns > in the table. The set of values is largely fixed, but as we offer new > shipping methods (e.g., we started offering USPS), we added more rows to the > table. > > It'd be nice if there were a way to map the rows in that table as enum > instances (Java5 or otherwise) automatically. The code could be > considerably simplified (I'm a big fan of switching with Java5 enums), but > maintain the flexibility of a DB backend. > > I'm acutely aware that this is likely a pipedream though, given the invasive > nature of it all. > > -- > Kevin > >
