/** * PUBLIC: * The inheritance policy is used to define how a descriptor takes part in inheritance. * All inheritance properties for both child and parent classes is configured in inheritance policy. * Caution must be used in using this method as it lazy initializes an inheritance policy. * Calling this on a descriptor that does not use inheritance will cause problems, #hasInheritance() must always first be called. */ public InheritancePolicy getInheritancePolicy() { if (inheritancePolicy == null) { // Lazy initialize to conserve space in non-inherited classes. setInheritancePolicy(new oracle.toplink.essentials.descriptors.InheritancePolicy(this)); } return inheritancePolicy; }