How do I get at join table properties when using ColdFusion ORM?

Question

I have two objects, Person and Family. I use a join table called "join_person_family" to track this many-to-many relationship. The join table has another property called "IS_PRIMARY" that I want to get at and filter when instantiating the person objects with EntityLoadByExample(), but I don't know how to do this with CF ORM. I could do this easily through SQL, but I'm trying to use ORM as much as possible. There may also be another way to track this property, but I can't think of anything. Thanks in advance for any help.

Here is the Family.cfc:

<cfcomponent hint="I am a Family" output="false" persistent="true" extends="_Proxy">
<cfproperty name="FAMILY_ID" hint="FAMILY_ID" type="numeric" ormtype="int" length="11" fieldtype="id" generator="identity" required="true"/>
<cfproperty name="PERSON" hint="PERSON" fieldtype="many-to-many" cfc="person" linktable="join_family_person" FKColumn="FAMILY_ID" inversejoincolumn="PERSON_ID" lazy="true"/>
<cfproperty name="STATUS" type="string" ormtype="string" length="45"/>
<cfproperty name="COMMENT" hint="COMMENT" type="string" length="255"/>
<cffunction name="init" hint="constructor" access="public" returntype="family" output="false">
    <cfscript>
return this;
</cfscript>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Here is the Person.cfc:

<cfcomponent hint="I am a Person" output="false" persistent="true" extends="_Proxy">
<cfproperty name="FAMILY" hint="FAMILY" fieldtype="many-to-many" cfc="family" linktable="join_family_person" FKColumn="PERSON_ID" inversejoincolumn="FAMILY_ID" lazy="true"/>
<cfproperty name="PERSON_ID" hint="PERSON_ID" type="numeric" ormtype="int" length="11" fieldtype="id" generator="identity" required="true"/>
<cfproperty name="USER" hint="USER" fieldtype="one-to-one" cfc="mend_user" FKColumn="USER_ID" lazy="true"/>
<cfproperty name="FIRST_NAME" hint="FIRST_NAME" type="string" length="45"/>
<cfproperty name="LAST_NAME" hint="LAST_NAME" type="string" length="45"/>
<cfproperty name="STATUS" hint="STATUS" type="numeric" ormtype="int"/>
<cffunction name="init" hint="constructor" access="public" returntype="person" output="false">
    <cfscript>
    return this;
    </cfscript>
</cffunction>

I found this, groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/cf-orm-dev/…, but I sure hope there is another way. — JamesRLamar

JamesRLamar JamesRLamar · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-17T15:49:44

Found this response, https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups=#!topic/cf-orm-dev/6Fox77MAcbs. After reading that I think that approach is actually superior anyway.

A intermediate entity with many-to-one relationships with the joining objects would allow me to use EntityLoadByExample() to get the relevant person objects filtered by "IS_PRIMARY". Then I could filter the person objects if need be.

How do I get at join table properties when using ColdFusion ORM?

1 Answers