CSLA .NET

If I have a child business object, be it a businesslistbase or businessbase, what is the most efficient way to get the ultimate root object?

I don't normally like the idea of looking up the object graph, but this is an instance where I want to.

Leveraging the parent property seems appealing to me, but since parent is protected, this sort of logic would be difficult when dealing with grandchildren or even children in a child collection, etc. Thought about providing an interface for my business objects that might provide public access for parent, but I'd rather not add it if I don't have to -- reflection seems like it might be a possible route too but I'm not sold on that either.

Hoping I'm missing an obvious solution to getting the root object from a child object somewhere in the root's object graph.

Chris

 

FYI, I opted to add an interface to my Csla extension classes to GetParent.

Chris,

Is it possible you post some code about this interface and its implementation ?

Thanks

Dominique

 

The interface:

/// <summary>

/// IChild provides for a means to get a Csla object's parent. Parent is a protected property,

/// so this interface simply provides for a public means to get it.

/// </summary>

public interface IChild

{

/// <summary>

/// Gets the parent object of this object.

/// </summary>

/// <returns>This object's parent.</returns>

object GetParent();

}

My business base AND my business list base (inheriting from CSLA objects) implement IChild and provide for GetRootObject.

#region IChild Implementation

/// <summary>

/// Gets the parent object of this object.

/// </summary>

/// <returns>This object's parent.</returns>

object IChild.GetParent()

{

return this.Parent;

}

#endregion

 

/// <summary>

/// Gets the current object's root object.

/// </summary>

/// <returns>The current object's root object.</returns>

public object GetRootObject()

{

object index = this;

while (index is IChild && ((IChild)index).GetParent() != null)

{

index = ((IChild)index).GetParent();

}

return index;

}

 

Many thanks for your code and your very quick answer.

Here your code in VB, I translated it wth SharpDevelop.
If it can help VB people.

''' <summary>

''' IChild provides for a means to get a Csla object's parent. Parent is a protected property,

''' so this interface simply provides for a public means to get it.

''' </summary>

Public Interface IChild

       ''' <summary>

       ''' Gets the parent object of this object.

       ''' </summary>

       ''' <returns>This object's parent.</returns>

       Function GetParent() As Object Implements INotifiedView.Initialize

End Interface

 

'''My business base AND my business list base (inheriting from CSLA objects) implement IChild and provide for GetRootObject.

 

#Region "IChild Implementation"

''' <summary>

''' Gets the parent object of this object.

''' </summary>

''' <returns>This object's parent.</returns>

Private Function IChild_GetParent() As Object Implements IChild.GetParent

       Return Me.Parent

End Function

#End Region

 

''' <summary>

''' Gets the current object's root object.

''' </summary>

''' <returns>The current object's root object.</returns>

Public Function GetRootObject() As Object

       Dim index As Object = Me

       While TypeOf index Is IChild AndAlso DirectCast(index, IChild).GetParent() IsNot Nothing

             index = DirectCast(index, IChild).GetParent()

       End While

       Return index

End Function