Re: ObjectDescription exists method?

    Hi David,

    I was going to send two cliched ( but true, that's why they are
cliches ) quotes and leave it at that:

    "It *should* work like ( something ) but it depends on what the
programmer was thinking that day."

    "More design occurs during coding than any of us would like to admit."

    Either or both may apply, but I think there's more to it than that.
Short version: I think the boolean and the exception refer to two distinctly
different things.

    I'm not psychic, but here's my take after looking at the code, which is:

  public boolean exists()
                      throws AS400Exception,
                                 AS400SecurityException,
                                 ErrorCompletingRequestException,
                                 InterruptedException,
                                 IOException,
                                 ObjectDoesNotExistException
  {
    try
    {
      refresh();
    }
    catch(AS400Exception e)
    {
      String id = e.getAS400Message().getID().trim();
      if (id.equalsIgnoreCase("CPF9801") ||
          id.equalsIgnoreCase("CPF9810"))
      {
        return false;
      }
      throw e;
    }
    return true;
  }

If you don't remember immediately, here are the messages:

CPF9801: Object &2 in library &3 not found.

CPF9810: Library &1 not found.

    Note that exists() calls refresh() - which throws
ObjectDoesNotExistException -  which calls another method - which also
throws ObjectDoesNotExistException.  Also, there is a difference between an
object under OS/400 ( pgm, file, lib, etc. ) and a Java object.

    exists() returns false if the library and/or OS/400 object wasn't found
( the point of the method ) and throws ObjectDoesNotExistException if some
necessary Java object couldn't be located or created along the way in the
chain of method calls ( i.e. a problem occurred )

    Other interpretations welcome.


                                                         Joe Sam

Joe Sam Shirah -        http://www.conceptgo.com
conceptGO       -        Consulting/Development/Outsourcing
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Gibbs" <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <java400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 11:50 AM
Subject: ObjectDescription exists method?


> Anyone know why the exists() method in
> com.ibm.as400.access.ObjectDescription would throw a
> ObjectDoesNotExistException?
>
> Seems kind of redundant to me.
>
> david
>
> -- 
> David Gibbs
> david@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Receipt of this message does not grant you permission to send me
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