How can I determine the "name" or type of a custom object?

Question

Assume the custom book object described in the developer guide

myApp.Book = function() {}
gapi.drive.realtime.custom.registerType(myApp.Book, 'Book');
myApp.Book.prototype.title = gapi.drive.realtime.custom.collaborativeField('title');
// ... other fields
var book = model.create('Book');
model.getRoot().set('book', book);

Is there any way for another client to know that the object at model.getRoot().get('book') is a 'Book'?

The API will tell you whether or not it is a custom object (gapi.drive.realtime.custom.isCustomObject(model.getRoot().get('book')) == true), but not what the type of the custom object is

Answer 1

Generally the client should be able to assume the type based on the data model structure.

If your data model structure is ambiguous, you could add a "name" property to each of your custom objects to distinguish.

Just set a value in the initializer. (See https://developers.google.com/drive/realtime/build-model#registering_and_creating_custom_objects)