[Xdoclet-user] Value objects

[Brian McSweeney]

Hi,   We're trying to get XDoclet to build slightly customised value objects without getting into writing our own, and we've got a bit stuck.   What we have is an entity bean A related using CMR to another entity bean B. The primary key of B is a URL, so the CMR relationship uses this URL to relate an instance of A to the instance of B (many A to one B).   What we want to be able to do is to create a value object for an A bean on our web tier including (amongst other things) the URL to the B bean that the A bean is related to, and use this value object to create a new instance of A that is automatically related to the correct instance of B (as identified by the URL in the value object). The B beans are all already set up, so we can guarantee that the URL will be a valid foreign key.   The problem is, the URL foreign key isn't a CMP field in A, it's a CMR-managed field. XDoclet therefore doesn't include it by default in the value object it creates for A.   Even though the URL isn't strictly a field in A, it effectively is (we're trying to hide the existence of B beans from our external object model). Effectively there's a "derived" field in A that is the URL foreign key to the related B. The B bean just contains more information about the URL that isn't relevant in the normal course of things.   What we're wondering is: is there any way we can tell XDoclet to include in the value object another field that is just the literal foreign key for our CMR relationship? Or, alternatively, can we fill in a field in the value object by dereferencing the CMR relationship and just passing the URL extracted from the B bean at the far end?   If we can't solve this we either have to write our own value objects or start passing B value objects around with the A ones, neither of which is very attractive - so any help gratefully received.   Cheers,   -- Simon and Brian