takeValueForKey, takeStoredValueForKey and willChange message problem

Hello everyone,

I have a problem, I would like some help if anyone can offer it.

Setup:

I have a subclass of EOGenericRecord, call it myClass.  It has a 
number of attibutes, but the base case is one column/attribute called 
myColumn.  Assume the select out of a database works.


public class myClass extends EOGenericRecord {

     public myClass () {
         super();
     }

     public NSData setMyColumn() {
         return (NSData) takeStoredValueForKey("myColumn");
     }
}

Now, when I want to change the value of myColumn and I want to 
trigger a "willchange" message I can use 
myClass.setMyColumn(newValue), or 
myClass.takeValueForKey(newValue,"myColumn") or takeStoredValueForKey 
(newValue,"myColumn").   So when I call editingContext.saveChagnes() 
the value gets sent to the database via an update statement.

Problem:

I want to set the value of myColumn but I do NOT want to trigger 
"willchange" and I don't want the new value to be sent to the 
database, but I do want the new value to be used as part of the 
update where clause. 

How do I do this?  Do I have to recode my objects as EOCustomObject 
to get around this so I can have custom accessor, or is there a way 
to get EOGenericRecord to do this also?

The docs at apple tell me this:
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/WebObjects/Enterprise_Objects/EnterpriseObjects/chapter_3_section_9.html>

There has to be some way to set the value "under the hood" so all the 
validation and notification does not happen.

Why:

We are using Sybase and to control changes we use the sybase 
timestamp column and it is maintained by the server.  Everytime the 
row it touched the timestamp column value changes.  If you include 
this column in your where clause you can catch changes by others 
before you overwrite them.  But you must update your local value 
after an update/insert.

I know I can achieve what I want by invalidating the object and 
refetching, but that is expensive to do and not an elegant solution. 
I have the update values selected out, but I can not figure out how 
to get EOF to take it without triggering an update.

Any idea, help will be welcomed.  I have tried a few different 
solutions, but nothing works.

-- 
I am trying to become obsolete.   But I can not because I am autodidactic.

That is why I put lots of comments into the code, so I can forget.