user interface - object editing and isDirty() flag

Question

I'm working on a system were a user can edit existing objects ("Filter" domain objects to be exact) through a GUI. As a UI hint, we only want to enable the save button if the user really modified something to the object. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this problem and what the best way would be to approach this.

I was thinking about adding an isDirty() flag to the domain object. When a user starts editing a Filter, I would then make a copy, pass it to the GUI and let the user make modifications to the copy. A binding on the isDirty() flag would then enabled/disable the save button. On saving, the differences would then be merged into the original object and persisted.

Additionaly, I was thinking what would happen if a user undos the changes he made to an object. The isDirty() flag should then return false. So I guess the only way to achieve this is to keep the original value of each property inside the domain object.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Correct!

Additionally,you can expose two methods: BeginEdit - In this method, your mark your IsDirty Flag to True. Meaning you are doing modification. Call this method when you are about to make modifications

CancelEdit - In this method, reset the IsDirty Flag to False. Meaning you have arborted the edit process and reverted back to the original state. Call this method when cancelling any modifications made.

And once any modifications are persisted, you also reset the IsDirty Flag to False.

I hope this helps.