Re: [binarycloud-dev] Er, what is the Entity Manager going to do?

[John D. <jo...@we...>]

On Sat, 14 Jul 2001, Justin Farnsworth wrote:

> 
> It is not clear, understandably, just what the Entity
> Manager is going to do.  The words in the documentation
> make sense, but specifically,
> 
> 1.  Will we be able to define a data structure with it
> 	like, externally in XML, and then refer to this
> 	as what we want to pass around in certain places?

The entities are defined in XML, yes. The 'make' process "compiles" those XML
structures into PHP data structures, so the run-time cost is not incurred. 

What do you mean "pass around"? The EntityManager manages operations having to
do with entities, namely Add(), Set(), Get(), GetList(), and Delete(). If you
need a populated entity object, then the Get() method will return it based on
the primary key.

> 2.  Or, will data structures have to be defined in each
> 	program "by hand"?

I don't follow. What data structures are you talking about?

> 3.  Are "easy" declarations even going to be a part of
> 	the Entity Manager.

Don't follow this either. The EntityManager is a framework. Your application
will probably extend it based on your needs. binarycloud will provide a base
set of functionality based on the EntityManager, namely a lister, an editor, a
picker. We don't currently have the notion of a pager, that I'm aware of;
That's part of the lister.

> 4.  Many other questions...
> 
> I just don't know what this animal is going to offer.
> For certain, what I feel a need for is a facility that
> "fixes" somehow, certain data structures, makes them
> easy to declare, and fill, and allow us to have a "standard"
> set of them, so I can tell, say, Jason, to write this
> or that module and make sure you use the FOOBAT
> data structure as the formal argument to
> 

It's pretty broad in scope. In our application, the EntityManager is _the_
connection between application logic and data management, storage and retrieval. 

> 
> PS:  And when is a first cut of Entity Manager likely????

This has yet to be determined. There is a significant amount of effort involved
here and it is a really bad time for the three of us who wrote it to work on
the binarycloud "port". Also, the EntityManager depends on the QueryManager,
and some other significant components. 

John

-- 

John Donagher
Application Engineer
Intacct Corp. - Powerful Accounting on the Web
408-395-0989
720 University Ave.
Los Gatos CA 95032
www.intacct.com

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