io.milton.annotations

Annotation Type ChildrenOf

@Target(value=METHOD)
 @Retention(value=RUNTIME)
public @interface ChildrenOf

Marks a method as one which locates children for the given parent. The parent will always be the first method argument

There may be multiple matching childrenOf methods for a given parent object, in which case all of the results are merged into a single set

The method must:

• return a collection, or array, or a single POJO object which has appropriate controllers
• the first argument must be the hierarchical parent of these objects

Example:

   @ChildrenOf
    public List <Band > getBands(BandsController root) {
        return Band.findAll(SessionManager.session());
    }
 

Performance Tip Note that Milton will scan children collections to locate single objects as part of resource location if no @ChildOf method is present. It will also scan by default if any @ChildOf methods have returned null. This can be a performance problem in many cases. To prevent @ChildrenOf methods being used to locate single items set the allowChildLookups property to false

Optional Element Summary

Optional Elements

Modifier and Type	Optional Element and Description
boolean	allowChildLookups If true (default) then the method this annotates can be used to locate single items.
boolean	override If true this method will replace (ie override) calls to any other methods with a target base class For example if you have @ChildrenOf method targeting Animal, and another method targeting Cat, then by default both sets of resources will be combined to produce children for a source object of Cat.

Element Detail

allowChildLookups

public abstract boolean allowChildLookups

If true (default) then the method this annotates can be used to locate single items. Otherwise this method will be ignored for single child lookups

Returns:

Default:

true

override

public abstract boolean override

If true this method will replace (ie override) calls to any other methods with a target base class For example if you have @ChildrenOf method targeting Animal, and another method targeting Cat, then by default both sets of resources will be combined to produce children for a source object of Cat. But by setting override to true only the Cat method will be used

Returns:

Default:

false