Working with a Copy Policy

The OracleAS TopLink unit of work feature must be able to clone persistent objects. OracleAS TopLink supports two ways of copying objects:

• By default, an object's default constructor is called to create a copy.

• You can specify a method on the object to be used by OracleAS TopLink to perform the copy, such as clone.

Setting the Copy Policy

Use the Copying tab to specify how OracleAS TopLink copies objects. OracleAS TopLink supports the following methods:

• Using the object's default constructor to create a copy

• Specifying a method, such as clone

To specify a copy method:

1. Select a descriptor in the Navigator pane. Its properties appear in the Editor pane.

   If the Copying advanced property is not visible for the descriptor, right-click the descriptor and choose Set Advanced Properties > Copying from the pop-up menu or from the Selected menu.

2. Click the Copying tab in the Editor pane.

   Figure 4-33 Copying Tab

   
   Description of the illustration copying.gif
   
   

3. Use this table to enter data in each field:

Field	Description
Use Instantiation Policy	Creates a new instance of the object using the descriptor's instantiation policy.
Use Clone Method	Specifies to call the clone() method of the object.
Method	Select the clone method from the drop-list. Click Create New Method to create a new method.