Firstly, This might seem like a long question. I don't think it is... The code is just an overview of what I'm currently doing. It doesn't feel right, so I am looking for constructive criticism and warnings for pitfalls and suggestions of what I can do.
I have a database with business objects.
I need to access properties of parent objects.
I need to maintain some sort of state through business objects.
If you look at the classes, I don't think that the access modifiers are right. I don't think its structured very well. Most of the relationships are modelled with public properties. SubAccount.Account.User.ID <-- all of those are public..
Is there a better way to model a relationship between classes than this so it's not so "public"?
The other part of this question is about resources:
If I was to make a User.GetUserList() function that returns a List, and I had 9000 users, when I call the GetUsers method, it will make 9000 User objects and inside that it will make 9000 new AccountCollection objects. What can I do to make this project not so resource hungry?
Please find the code below and rip it to shreds.
public class User {
public string ID {get;set;}
public string FirstName {get; set;}
public string LastName {get; set;}
public string PhoneNo {get; set;}
public AccountCollection accounts {get; set;}
public User {
accounts = new AccountCollection(this);
}
public static List<Users> GetUsers() {
return Data.GetUsers();
}
}
public AccountCollection : IEnumerable<Account> {
private User user;
public AccountCollection(User user) {
this.user = user;
}
public IEnumerable<Account> GetEnumerator() {
return Data.GetAccounts(user);
}
}
public class Account {
public User User {get; set;} //This is public so that the subaccount can access its Account's User's ID
public int ID;
public string Name;
public Account(User user) {
this.user = user;
}
}
public SubAccountCollection : IEnumerable<SubAccount> {
public Account account {get; set;}
public SubAccountCollection(Account account) {
this.account = account;
}
public IEnumerable<SubAccount> GetEnumerator() {
return Data.GetSubAccounts(account);
}
}
public class SubAccount {
public Account account {get; set;} //this is public so that my Data class can access the account, to get the account's user's ID.
public SubAccount(Account account) {
this.account = account;
}
public Report GenerateReport() {
Data.GetReport(this);
}
}
public static class Data {
public static List<Account> GetSubAccounts(Account account) {
using (var dc = new databaseDataContext()) {
List<SubAccount> query = (from a in dc.Accounts
where a.UserID == account.User.ID //this is getting the account's user's ID
select new SubAccount(account) {
ID = a.ID,
Name = a.Name,
}).ToList();
}
}
public static List<Account> GetAccounts(User user) {
using (var dc = new databaseDataContext()) {
List<Account> query = (from a in dc.Accounts
where a.UserID == User.ID //this is getting the user's ID
select new Account(user) {
ID = a.ID,
Name = a.Name,
}).ToList();
}
}
public static Report GetReport(SubAccount subAccount) {
Report report = new Report();
//database access code here
//need to get the user id of the subaccount's account for data querying.
//i've got the subaccount, but how should i get the user id.
//i would imagine something like this:
int accountID = subAccount.Account.User.ID;
//but this would require the subaccount's Account property to be public.
//i do not want this to be accessible from my other project (UI).
//reading up on internal seems to do the trick, but within my code it still feels
//public. I could restrict the property to read, and only private set.
return report;
}
public static List<User> GetUsers() {
using (var dc = new databaseDataContext()) {
var query = (from u in dc.Users
select new User {
ID = u.ID,
FirstName = u.FirstName,
LastName = u.LastName,
PhoneNo = u.PhoneNo
}).ToList();
return query;
}
}
}