Obi Oberoi

IsDirty Implementation

Even though, there are a lot of frameworks in the market place to create distributed, object-oriented applications that employ .Net technologies e.g. CSLA and such.  However, to implement such frameworks require that you have a good understanding of their hierarchical structure, base class libraries, dependencies and the like...

In my recent project, I was asked to quickly implement the Is Dirty functionality.  As the name suggests, 'Is Dirty' is a term used, typically for data entry specific applications such as OLTP.  When the user modifies a value in a text field or a combobox, check box etc. the application flags it as Dirty.  If nothing changes, then making a trip to the database is not only useless but also costly.

So, here is how this seemingly simple Is Dirty implementation is used in a WinForm project:

'declare two module level variables of ArrayList. (ArrayList is a member of the System.Collections and implements the Ilist interface)

Private arrPrev, arrCurr As New ArrayList

 Private Sub CustomerDetails_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

'some code goes here

SetState(Me, arrPrev)

End Sub

Private Sub btnOk_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnOk.Click

   SetState(Me, arrCurr)

   Dim retValue As Boolean = IsDirty(arrPrev, arrCurr)

   If Not retValue Then

      Me.Cursor = Cursors.Default

MessageBox.Show("You have not made any changes", "MyApp", MessageBoxButtons.OK)

      Me.Close()

      Exit Sub

End If

End Sub

Friend Function IsDirty(ByVal arrPrev As ArrayList, ByVal arrCurr As ArrayList) As Boolean
        Try
            Dim i As Int16
            For i = 0 To arrCurr.Count - 1
                If arrCurr.Item(i).Equals(arrPrev.Item(i)) Then
                    'do nothing
                Else
                    Return True
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next

            Return False

        Catch ex As Exception
            Throw New ArgumentException("Is Dirty Error")
        Finally
            arrCurr.Clear()
        End Try

    End Function

Friend Sub SetState(ByVal frm As Form, ByVal arrState As ArrayList)

Try

Select Case frm.Name

   Case NEW_CUSTOMER   'this is a constant for a form name

      NewCustomerState(arrState)

      'code for the other form(s) goes here

   End Select

End Sub

Private Sub NewCustomerState(ByVal arrState As ArrayList)

Try

With NewCustomer

   arrState.Add(.txtCustName.Text)

   arrState.Add(.txtAppRecvdDate.Text)

   arrState.Add(.txtCustAddress.Text)

   arrState.Add(.txtCustCity.Text)

End With

Catch ex As Exception

Throw New ArgumentException("New Customer State could not be initialized")

End Try

End Sub

Cheers,

Obi Oberoi