Hierarchical data with SQLAssembler: pointers vs ids

Question

Hi!
Ive got parent-children nodes that I need to store and retrieve from an SQL database, using SQLAssembler. The parents and children are a recursive tree, all of the same class.
The data is displayed in AdvancedDataGrid, which requires the children attribute. In the SQL table, I prefer one parent relation instead. Therefore my model uses both, which increases the complexity.
My problem, I think, is that the Flex/ActionScript model is using pointers (parent), while the SQL tables uses the parentId (integer).
How do I deal with the two different ways of referring to the parent/child? Do I need to implement both in my managed objects?
My current implementation includes both SQL ids and AS pointers. On the result event, I create pointer relationships based on the SQL node ids. I think this may be unnecessary, as LCDS is passing the whole tree as one, to the database after my update.
I basically unsure how to implement these parent/child relationships in ActionScript and/or SQL tables / statements. Because my current implemnations have been mucking up halfway through.
Any hints are greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Vegard

Answer 1

Well, just start by making a Node class. To allow Nodes to have children, make each Node have an array (or arraylist, vector, etc.) of other Nodes.
for example:
class Node{
  private ArrayList<Node> children;
}Put whatever else you need in there.
You can then traverse these through methods you write, to return child nodes. If you need the Nodes to have knowledge of their parents, add a Node parent; variable in your Node class.
Essentially, keep things as simple as possible, and this will allow you to write cleaner code and also decide on the depth of the structure at runtime, like you describe.