Scoping OID / OREF map

May be you can try to take a clone of the object by %ConstructClone() I know it increments the reference count. However you can keep the old object for validation.

Use %ConstructClone (from %RegisteredObject)

Method %ConstructClone(deep As %Integer = 0, ByRef cloned As %String, location As %String) as %RegisteredObject

Clone the current object to a new object. If deep is 1 then this does a deep copy which will also copy any subobjects and if deep is 0 then it will create another reference to any subobjects and increment the reference count appropriately. It returns the new cloned object.

Note that even if deep=0 when you clone a parent object in a parent child relationship or a one object of a one to many relationship then it will construct clones of all the child/many objects. This is because a child/many object can only point at a single parent and so if we did not create a clone of these then you would have a relationship with zero items in it. If you really just want to clone the object without these child/many objects then pass deep=-1 to this method.

After the clone is constructed it will call %OnConstructClone(object,deep,.cloned) on the clone if it is defined so that you can perform any additional steps e.g. taking out a lock. This works just the same way as %OnNew() does.

The object is the oref of the original object that was cloned. The cloned array is just used internally when doing a deep clone to prevent recursive loops, do not pass anything in at all for this parameter on the initial call. If you write a %OnConstructClone and from here you wish to call %ConstructClone on another object pass in the cloned array, e.g. 'Do oref.%ConstructClone(1,.cloned)' so that it can prevent recursive loops.

The location is used internally to pass the new location for stream objects.

IRISAPP>set obj1 = ##class(dc.data.Country).%OpenId(1)

IRISAPP>set obj2 = obj1.%ConstructClone(1)

IRISAPP>w

obj1=<OBJECT REFERENCE>[4@dc.data.Country]
obj2=<OBJECT REFERENCE>[5@dc.data.Country]

IRISAPP>set obj2.name="ANDORRA"

IRISAPP>w obj1.name
Andorra
IRISAPP>w obj2.%Id()

IRISAPP>w obj1.%Id()
1

Would making a deep clone immediately after first opening the object resolve this?

Class dc.Per Extends %Persistent
{
Property Color As %String;
}

Test:

>s obj=##class(dc.Per).%New()
 
>s obj.Color="Red"
 
>w obj.%Save()
1
>kill obj
 
>s obj=##class(dc.Per).%OpenId(1)
 
>s objcopy=obj.%ConstructClone(1)
 
>w objcopy
2@dc.Per
>w obj
1@dc.Per

There are two aspects of the question,
a) how to get the old property value of a modified property and
b) what happens, if one still opens the same object in the SAME PROCESS once again.

For a) the answer is already given by either using the GetStored() method or cloning the object. In cases, where an old propvalue is needed, I prefer the object cloning, especially if the base object contains embedded objects.
Of course, if the application uses the %Reload() method, then the %OnReload() callback method should do the same as %OnOpen() does.

Class DC.Data Extends %Persistent
{
Property Name As %String;
Property Addr As DataAddr;
Property oldObj As Data [ ReadOnly, Transient ];
Method %OnOpen() As %Status [ Private, ServerOnly = 1 ]
{
    set r%oldObj=..%ConstructClone(1)  // do a deep clone
    do ..%SetModified(0)               // clear modified state
    Quit $$$OK
}
}

Class DC.DataAddr Extends %SerialObject
{
Property Street As %String;
Property City As %String;
}

kill
set obj=##class(DC.Data).%New(),obj.Name="Joe"
set obj.Addr.Street="Abbey Rd. 123", obj.Addr.City="London"
write obj.%Save() --> 1

kill
set obj=##class(DC.Data).%OpenId(1)

set obj.Name="Paul"
write obj.Name --> Paul
write obj.oldObj.Name --> Joe

set obj.Addr.City="London East"
write obj.Addr.City --> London East
write obj.oldObj.Addr.City --> London

For b), it was said, that a second open (of the same object) returns the same OID. This is true. But there is one more thing. That second open doesn't even trys to get that object from the database but just keeps a lookout in the memory. This means two things (assuming no locks are used)
1) if the object was modified by another process, you "open the old version" already in the memory of your process, and
2) nevertheless that an other process deletes that object, your proces will open a nonexisting object...

Seq  Process-A                                  Process-B
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1   set obj1=##class(DC.Data).%OpenId(1)
 2                                              do ##class(DC.Data).%DeleteId(1)
 3   write ##class(DC.Data).%ExistsId(1) --> 0
 4   set obj2=##class(DC.Data).%OpenId(1)
 5   write obj1=obj2 --> 1
 

As a consequence of the above, I have learned not to use a simple open:

set obj=##class(Some.Class).%OpenId(oid)

but a more secure open, by invalidating a possible old instance:

set obj="", obj=##class(Some.Class).%OpenId(oid)

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