[eclipselink-dev] How does EclipseLink clone objects?

[Martin Ledvinka <martin.ledvinka@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,


this may be a little strange question, but still. I study at the Czech Technical University and my bachelor's project is transactional processing for a persistence layer developed at the university. This layer control access to ontologies, not relational databases. I got inspired by the EclipseLink and here's my question:

Can you, please, give me a little advice about cloning objects? I've developed the Unit of Work system, quite similar to the one in EclipseLink (but much simpler), but the way EclipseLink creates clones is quite complex. Is there an easier way to clone objects? I understand that making shallow copies won't work, but I don't know how to solve relationships when cloning. Should I clone all the objects the given one is in relationship with? Or is there another solution?

Thanks very much

Martin Ledvinka