Nullpointer: Reference entity null

Question

Hey,
I have an view (PremiebetalerView) that consists of 4 entities:
- PolisRelatie (updatable)
- Relatie (reference FK between PolisRelatie and Relatie)
- Straat (reference FK between Relatie and Straat)
- Beroep (reference FK between Relatie and Beroep)
In the SQL I added an outer join: PolisRelatie.REE_REE_ID = Relatie.REE_ID (+).
I have also a Car view and a view link between CarView and PremiebetalerView, with CarView the master.
In java code I create a Premiebetaler view row instance and set some defaults of the PolisRelatie entity. When I select in other screen a Relatie I want to set this ID in the column REE_REE_ID of the polis relatie and refresh the relatie (row.getRelatie().refresh(PremiebetalerViewRowImpl.REFRESH_CONTAINEES)). This works well in my first CarView instance but when I copy this instance to a new view row and again create a Premiebetaler view row instance then row.getRelatie() evaluates to null so I can't refresh the entity.
Why is this entity null and how can I 'initialise' this entity?
Thanx, Marianne

Answer 1

Workaround: update the reference entity manually.
Create a custom ViewRowImpl (generate accessors) for the view, and for the foreign key attribute, use a setter that goes something like:
public void setQuoteSheetId(Number value) {
  setAttributeInternal(QUOTESHEETID, value);
  // workaround ADF bug
  // if not equal
  if ((value != null) ? !value.equals(getpkQuoteSheetId()) : (getpkQuoteSheetId() != null)) {
    // find the correct entity and set it
    if (value != null) {
      ViewObject quoteSheetView = getApplicationModule().findViewObject("QuoteSheetView1");
      Key key = new Key(new Object[] { value });
      Row[] rows = quoteSheetView.findByKey(key, 1);
      if ((rows != null) && (rows.length == 1) && (rows[0] != null)) {
        ViewRowImpl viewRowImpl = (ViewRowImpl)rows[0];
        setEntity(4, viewRowImpl.getEntity(0));
      } else {
        throw new RowNotFoundException(false, quoteSheetView.getName(), key);
    } else {
      setEntity(4, null);
}where
getpkQuoteSheetId() is the getter for the primary key attribute of the reference entity,
"QuoteSheetView1" is a default view of the reference entity,
and 4 is the index of the reference entity for the view.