Dynamic property defaults in CF9 ORM

Question

How do you set up dynamic property defaults on CF9 ORM objects?

For instance, I know I can set a property default like this:

property name="isActive" default="1";

But what if you want to have a dynamically generated default, such as a date or a UUID?

property name="uuid" default="#createUUID()#";

...throws an error - so what's the workaround for this?

Answer 1

Have you tried overloading the getter?

public string function getUUID() {if(variables.UUID EQ ""){ return createUUID(); } else { return variables.firstName; }; }

I can't test that from where I'm at, but I would try.

Answer 2

When an Entity object is created the objects constructor is called. This is a great place for running "setup" code.

User.cfc

component persistent="true"
{
  property name="id" fieldtype="id" generator="native";
  property name="secretKey";

  public User function init() {
     if (isNull(variables.secretKey))
         setSecretKey(createdUUID());

     return this;
  }
}