This one's probably simple but my brain doesn't want to handle it. I've got a "Venue" CFC that contains information about performance/exhibit areas. Some venues feature many rooms or areas. For example Boston Common has the Frog Pond, the Brewer's Fountain, and the Bandstand; the Boston Ballet building has 5 studios; etc
The net result is that each venue may have a single parent and may have many children. I'm an old hand at using "parent"/"child" processing in SQL but am unclear how to model this in a CFC. My first assumption was that the Venue component would have a "Parent" property of type "Venue". My problem occurs when a venue doesn't have a component. When I'm writing my "getter" I'm not sure how to handle the returntype. Most simple types are defaulted to the empty string - what of How would this normally be done? Would you: 1) Populate the "Parent" property with a Venue object if needed, but leave it as the empty string if not? And then use something like "NOT IsSimpleValue()" to determine if it's populated? 2) Populate the "Parent" property with a Venue object if needed, but leave it UNDEFINED if not. 3) Create another property as a "gatekeeper" for this one; something like "isChild" populated with a Boolean value? 4) Always populate the property using either a real parent or a self-reference (in effect saying "when I'm my own dad, we're at the top")? 5) Populate the property with an "empty venue" (one that's instantiated but not populated)? 6) Something else entirely? My goal, of course, is to access the object as seamlessly as possible (having external object do a lot of "checking" on the return doesn't seem very clean). I guess, to make it simple, I'm asking how to best deal with optional custom datatypes. Thanks in advance. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm?link=i:4:137757 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm?link=t:4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm?link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4 Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm
