Is there a way to test for the first calling of a function?

Question

Hi,
I created a function (using other functions I created) to
build a dynamic hierarchy tree menu based on parentID and itemID
etc etc - I'm sure you're familiar with this concept. It works
great, and there's no problem there.
However, I do this all by building it into a string, then
dumping it on the page. Yet again, this all works fine. However,
because the function gets called recursively, my class,
class="tree" gets repeat accross every occurance of the opening UL
tag.
I only want this class to be applied to the first UL, but
because this is recursive, I'm not sure of a way to detect if the
function is being called for the first time or 5th time, etc. I
want to say something like:
<cfif myFunction is being called the first time>
add the class
<cfelse>
don't add the class
</cfif>
Please see my code attached. It is fully working. Please
don't worry about what all the other functions do etc, they are
working fine, but I need a way or variable to test against.
Any ideas?
Many thanks,
Michael.

Answer 1

> a dynamic
> hierarchy tree menu based on parentID and itemID etc etc
Is it too late to revise the way you are implementing your
hierarchy? This
approach is very resource intensive (because you need all
that recursion),
and very slow for most operations.
When dealing with hierarchies, I use the nested set model
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nested_set_model).
Can I recommend you have
a look, if you have the chance?
The code is more complicated, but it is really very quick for
fetches.
It's slightly slower for create/update/delete operations, but
for web
sites, the vast majority of operations are reads.
Adam