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

[Justin F. <je...@ey...>]

Thank you John, for this answer.  It clears up a lot of things,
and I feel that it is going to be useful.

What seems satisfying is that, if I understand correctly, is
that if I need a data structure such as:

$setup  = array(
'table' => array(
        'border'        => "0",
        'align'         => "left",
        'bgcolor'       => "#CCCCFF",
        'cellspacing'   => "2",
        'cellpadding'   => "5",
        'width'         => "400",
        ),
'header' => array(
        'bgcolor'       => "#FFCCCC",
        ),
'row' => array(
        'bgcolor'       => "#CCFFCC",
        ),
'column' => array(
        'bgcolor'       => "#FCFFCC",
        ),
'other' => array(
        'freshmeat'     => true,
        ),
);

that I, somehow, write this out in XML, and somehow, give
it an identity/tag/handle/key I can somehow, declare it easily,
(and it gets dragged out of ./ent ??), can fill it easily,
use it arguments to other module method calls.  It is
appreciated that a lot of this effort will be offloaded
at compile time and not run time.

In any case, it sounds good.  I will just have to wait,
now, for the Stradivarius.

_jef

-----------------------

John Donagher wrote:
> 
> 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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-- 
Justin Farnsworth
Eye Integrated Communications
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Greenville, NC 27858 | Tel: (252) 353-0722