Limiting Querys

[Juan Pablo Araya]

Hi all.

We have something like this:

public Class Question {

public int Id { get, set }
public int AreaId { get, set }

public Area RelatedArea { get { return Area.get(this.AreaId); } }
}

Each time we use a Question object and call the Area property with some like:

myQuestion.RelatedArea.AreaName;
myQuestion.RelatedArea.AreaPhone;

IBatis goes to access the database and ask for "select * from area
where Id = ... (the AreaId)...":

myQuestion.RelatedArea.AreaName; (one SQL)
myQuestion.RelatedArea.AreaPhone; (another SQL)

We want to limit the access to database with:

class Question {
 private Area _relatedArea;

public Area RelatedArea {
 get {
    if(_relatedArea == null) { _relatedArea = Area.get(IdArea); }
    return _relatedArea;
  }
}

With this solution iBatis just access one time the DB because in the
first QuestionObject.RelatedArea the Area is obtained, and the next
.RelatedArea comes from memory.

My question is: is there any other way, through a pattern or a memory
Cache for iBatis?

Thanks again and sorry for my poor English! :S