CMP relationship fields

[mprem kumar]

The spec document[10.3.1] says that 'The accessor methods for the container-managed relationship fields must not be exposed in the remote interface of an entity bean', then, i have the following questions

1. Can the local interface contain methods that in turn accesses the relationship field accessor methods?

2. Can the remote interface contain methods that in turn accesses the
non-relationship field accessor methods?

Thanks.

[Stefan Guilhen]

The answer is yes for both questions. The beans participating in a CMR must define local interfaces and the accessor methods that you define in the bean class use the local interface as parameter and return type. As a result, you cannot expose those methods in the remote interface because you are not allowed to expose local interfaces to remote clients.

Nothing prevents you from exposing them in the local interfaces, though. Also, the remote interfaces can expose the non-relationship field accessor methods. But keep in mind that if you are using CMP your accessor methods will be abstract and if you choose to expose them in the component interface you cannot perform additional steps like validation when they are called because the container will provide the implementation of the methods. For that reason, it is recommended that you define and expose your own pair of accessor methods that perform any additional steps and then call the abstract accessor methods.

Regards,
Stefan
[ April 18, 2005: Message edited by: Stefan Guilhen ]