Tired of casting the return from ModelManager.getModel(), here is a tip

Question

If you have been coding in JATO, you may have found yourself
frequently having to cast the value
returned by ModelManager.getModel(Class interfaceClass), in order to
operate on the returned model in the fashion you desire.
That is because ModelManager.getModel(Class interfaceClass) returns a
Model interface and in
the current version of the iMT, most of the Model interfaces are
under specified.
By underspecified I mean that the iMT translation tool could have
specified more interface support in each of the application specific
Model interface declarations.
For instance, take the migration of a MultiSQL data object in
NetDynamics.
e.g. MultiSQLProducts
The current version of the iMT translates this into a Model interface
and a corresponding implementation.
e.g. MultiSQLProductsModel and MultiSQLProductsModelImpl.
The current version of the iMT declares that
public interface MultiSQLProductModel extends QueryModel
while
public class MultiSQLProductModelImpl extends QueryModelBase
implements MultiSQLProductModel, SelectQueryModel,
InsertQueryModel, UpdateQueryModel, DeleteQueryModel
Now, this means that when you get a MultiSQLProductModel from the
ModelManager by calling ModelManager.getModel
(MultiSQLProductModel.class), you will get a
MultiSQLProductModelImpl object but you will have to cast the
returned value if you wish to take advantage of its SelectQueryModel,
InsertQueryModel, UpdateQueryModel, DeleteQueryModel capabilities.
This can be tiresome.
The remedy is that the interface declaration can be improved.
Specifically, we can rewrite the interface/impl declarations as
follows:
public interface MultiSQLProductModel extends QueryModel,
SelectQueryModel, InsertQueryModel,
UpdateQueryModel, DeleteQueryModel
public class MultiSQLProductModelImpl extends QueryModelBase
implements MultiSQLProductModel
This way when you call ModelManager.getModel
(MultiSQLProductModel.class), you will not have to cast the return in
order to take advantage of its its SelectQueryModel,
InsertQueryModel, UpdateQueryModel, DeleteQueryModel capabilities.
The next release of the iMT will translate code in this fashion.
The current translation style is not broken, nor will it be broken by
the next release of the iMT.
We are just giving current iMT users an FYI, so that you can manually
adjust your models IF you
wish to make your programming efforts lest cast intensive.

Answer 1

For those having problems with 10.4.x, try this link and see if any of their fixes address your problems. Apparently, there are several issues with
10.4.x that are unrelated to the fix for the 10.3.9 users that I posted.
Apple Mac OS X Intel - 10.4.9
http://www.macfixit.com/search.php?productID=29147
Apple Mac OS X PPC - 10.4.9
http://www.macfixit.com/search.php?productID=8848