>What happens anywhere in the code when it can't find a file it needs in order to proceed?
>
>It's up to the programmer to handle the error.
>
>I'm not talking about an error.
>Let me re-phrase....what happens if your code is running in a layer where it doesn't "see" the database/dbf?

Then you split the factory into a FactoryProductionPlant and FactoryDataRetrievalEngine and have the Plant send a vegetative request to the Engine to please see if there's a record with name="MyToken".

Or you can just decide that you can't possibly have a factory because you don't know into which layer it goes.