Using Caché Objects - InterSystems Documentation

The Caché Data Population Utility
19.1.1 Changes to the Class Definition
To use the populate utility, simply add %Populate to the end of a class' list of superclasses,
so that it inherits the interface methods. For example, if a class inherits directly from
%Persistent, its new superclass list would be:
Class MyApp.MyClass Extends (%Persistent,%Populate) ...
Do not use %Populate as a primary superclass; that is do not list it as the first class in the
superclass list.
When using the New Class Wizard within the Caché Studio, you can specify that a new class
supports “automatic data population” . This is equivalent to adding the %Populate class to
the superclass list.
Once you have changed the class definition, re-compile the class so that you can populate
instances with data.
19.1.2 Populating Objects
To create new instances of a class and populate them with dummy data, simply run the
Populate class method inherited from the %Populate class at the command line in the Caché
terminal:
Do ##class(Person).Populate()
By default, Populate creates 10 new objects, populates their literal properties with random
data, and saves them in the database. It also populates reference properties if the referenced
class contains any objects, collections of data types, collections of persistent objects, and
indexes defined for the class.
If you prefer, you can specify the number of objects to create:
Do ##class(Person).Populate(num)
where num is the number of objects that you want.
Note:
After using the populate utility to create sample data, you must manually delete the
class extent (set of all object instances) in order to have an empty set of objects. You
can do this using either the %DeleteExtent() method (safe) or the %KillExtent()
method (fast) of the persistent interface. For more information, see the section
Deleting Objects in the chapter “Object Persistence.”
162 Using Caché Objects