hibernate-devel

[Hibernate] writing the properties of a persistent object to a string

[Brad C. <bra...@wo...>]

i often add a toString method (that prints out the values of all =
properties) to my persistent objects so that i can get detailed logging =
of an object's state when it is loaded, saved, etc.  i have just written =
a printToString method for the Session interface/SessionImpl class that =
does this dynamically, taking into account proxy's, lazy collections and =
PersistentEnum types, so i don't have to write & maintain the toString =
methods (for this purpose) anymore.  i know gavin would rather the =
Session interface didn't grow anymore :-), but i think this may be =
useful for others to.

comments?

brad

RE: [Hibernate] writing the properties of a persistent object to a string

[Anton v. S. <an...@ap...>]

I would find this useful.  I rely on toString quite a bit.

I assume that printToString could be added somewhere else, but would then
require a session object as a parameter?  Or would that be very unnatural?
Design niceties aside, that would work fine for me.  Would adding it to the
Hibernate class be any better from a reduced-interface-clutter perspective?

Anton


-----Original Message-----
From: hib...@li...
[mailto:hib...@li...]On Behalf Of Brad Clow
Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 5:43 PM
To: hib...@li...
Subject: [Hibernate] writing the properties of a persistent object to a
string


i often add a toString method (that prints out the values of all properties)
to my persistent objects so that i can get detailed logging of an object's
state when it is loaded, saved, etc.  i have just written a printToString
method for the Session interface/SessionImpl class that does this
dynamically, taking into account proxy's, lazy collections and
PersistentEnum types, so i don't have to write & maintain the toString
methods (for this purpose) anymore.  i know gavin would rather the Session
interface didn't grow anymore :-), but i think this may be useful for others
to.

comments?

brad

Re: [Hibernate] writing the properties of a persistent object to a string

[Gavin K. <ga...@ap...>]

I prefer Anton's suggestion. There used to be a method like this on the
session interface A Long Time Ago but I got rid of it because I didn't think
it had anything to do with persistence. On the other hand,

sessionFactory.openDatabinder().toXML(foo);

does a really nice job of printing an object.....

----- Original Message -----
From: "Anton van Straaten" <an...@ap...>
To: "Brad Clow" <bra...@wo...>;
<hib...@li...>
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 8:40 AM
Subject: RE: [Hibernate] writing the properties of a persistent object to a
string


> I would find this useful.  I rely on toString quite a bit.
>
> I assume that printToString could be added somewhere else, but would then
> require a session object as a parameter?  Or would that be very unnatural?
> Design niceties aside, that would work fine for me.  Would adding it to
the
> Hibernate class be any better from a reduced-interface-clutter
perspective?
>
> Anton
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: hib...@li...
> [mailto:hib...@li...]On Behalf Of Brad Clow
> Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 5:43 PM
> To: hib...@li...
> Subject: [Hibernate] writing the properties of a persistent object to a
> string
>
>
> i often add a toString method (that prints out the values of all
properties)
> to my persistent objects so that i can get detailed logging of an object's
> state when it is loaded, saved, etc.  i have just written a printToString
> method for the Session interface/SessionImpl class that does this
> dynamically, taking into account proxy's, lazy collections and
> PersistentEnum types, so i don't have to write & maintain the toString
> methods (for this purpose) anymore.  i know gavin would rather the Session
> interface didn't grow anymore :-), but i think this may be useful for
others
> to.
>
> comments?
>
> brad
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This sf.net email is sponsored by: DEDICATED SERVERS only $89!
> Linux or FreeBSD, FREE setup, FAST network. Get your own server
> today at http://www.ServePath.com/indexfm.htm
> _______________________________________________
> hibernate-devel mailing list
> hib...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hibernate-devel

RE: [Hibernate] writing the properties of a persistent object to a string

[Anton v. S. <an...@ap...>]

> On the other hand,
>
> sessionFactory.openDatabinder().toXML(foo);
>
> does a really nice job of printing an object.....

I haven't tried that, but I will, thanks.

This made me think some more...  Ideally, having a single method with fixed
behavior for something like this, on a class like Hibernate or Session, may
not be such a good idea.  It would be better if the behavior were
customizable or pluggable, and perhaps that would lead to a different
interface style anyway.

Perhaps the code to do this could be packaged as a class which a developer
could use to implement their own final result, i.e. provide methods that
allow the components of an object's string representation to be arranged
differently, abbreviated, or whatever.  This could have the additional
benefit of not needing to extend any existing classes or interfaces, and
being more orthogonal to the core Hibernate persistence functionality.

Anton