Over-using Lazy properties in GridView?

kalel_4444 · November 3rd, 2008, 09:26 PM

Hello All,

My question is, when using multiple lazy-loaded properties in a GridView, is there a call to the database for each property ?

Here's my situation:

I have just completed a ProfileListing.ascx control, following the desgin of the ArticleListing control in TBH (except for creating a custom pager & sorter to make it SEO friendly, it's pretty much the same) and it seems to load quickly locally. In my gridview list, each row contains data from 2 tables (Profiles & Addresses). So:

Profiles.AddressID(FK) ---> Addresses.AddressID(PK)

Lazy Initialization:

Code:

private Address _addressParentDetails = null;

Code:

      public Address AddressParentDetails
      {
         get
         {
            if (_addressParentDetails == null && this.AddressID != 0)
               _addressParentDetails = Address.GetAddressByID((int)this.AddressID);
            return _addressParentDetails;
         }
      }

In each Gridview row, I'm accessing both data from an ObjectDataSource in BLL.Profiles.GetProfiles and various Lazy Loaded properties using the above initialization like so:

<ItemTemplate>
<%# Eval("AddressParentDetails.Phone") %>
<%# Eval("AddressParentDetails.Address1") %>
<%# Eval("AddressParentDetails.Address2") %>
<%# Eval("AddressParentDetails.Address3") %>
<%# Eval("AddressParentDetails.City") %>
<%# Eval("AddressParentDetails.State") %>
<%# Eval("AddressParentDetails.PostalCode") %>
<%# Eval("AddressParentDetails.Country") %>
<ItemTemplate>

So again, in the above example, am I accessing AddressParentDetails 8 times or once ? If so, alternatively would it be better just to nest another ObjectDataSource (BLL.Addresses.GetAddressByID), grab the entire Address collection, but at least grab it only once ?

Any insight is appreciated..! :)

Thank you,
Ronnie

jimibt · November 4th, 2008, 06:54 AM

Hi Ronnie,

You're only accessing the AddressParentDetails (or should i say, _addressParentDetails) once for each row as the variable is set on the 1st invocation and then just acesses it's properties thereafter. Not only that, if you are using cacheing on the BLL (which i presume you are), you will only ever hit the database on cache expiry for the address object of that address_id or when it's been amended. so, in effect, you could only hit the database a few times a day for that address_id all going well. the real benefit of course being that you'd only ever load it in the 1st place if you explicitly requested it, otherwise, your 'list' would skip over it without actually requesting data from it.

a win/win situation...

jimi

http://www.originaltalent.com

kalel_4444 · November 5th, 2008, 01:43 AM

Hi Jimi,

Thanks for the response and confirmation on this, I was a bit uneasy and not sure about this.

I'm now creating another similar control, but with a ListView and the DataPager and I'll still be using the Lazy-loaded properties with this and throughout the project.

Thanks again..!! :)
Ronnie