Using i2ADWODA in business object designer

This section describes how to use i2ADWODA in Business Object Designer to generate business object definitions. For information on launching Business Object Designer, see the Business Object Development Guide.

After you launch an ODA, you must launch Business Object Designer to configure and run it. There are six steps in Business Object Designer to generate a business object definition using an ODA. Business Object Designer provides a wizard that guides you through each of these steps.

After starting the ODA, do the following to start the wizard:

  1. Open Business Object Designer.
  2. From the File menu, select the New Using ODA... submenu.

    Business Object Designer displays the first window in the wizard, named Select Agent.

To select, configure, and run the ODA, follow these steps:

  1. Selecting the ODA
  2. "Configuring initialization properties"
  3. "Expand nodes and select tables, views, stored procedures, and synonyms/nicknames"
  4. "Confirm selection of database objects"
  5. "Generate the definition" and, optionally, "Provide additional information"
  6. "Save the definition"

Selecting the ODA

Business Object Designer provides a six-step wizard. Open the wizard and select the ODA to run.

To select the ODA:

  1. Click the Find Agents button to display all registered or currently running ODAs in the Located agents field.
    Note:
    If Business Object Designer does not locate your desired ODA, check the setup of the ODA.
  2. Select the desired ODA from the displayed list.

    Business Object Designer displays your selection in the Agent's name field.

Configuring initialization properties

The first time Business Object Designer communicates with i2ADWODA, it prompts you to enter a set of initialization properties as shown in Figure 6. You can save these properties in a named profile so that you do not need to re-enter them each time you use i2ADWODA. For information on specifying an ODA profile, see the Business Object Development Guide.

Figure 6. Configuring agent initialization properties


Configure the i2ADWODA properties described in Table 14.

Table 14. i2ADWODA properties

Row number Property name Property type Description
1
UserName
String Name of the user with authorization to connect to the database
2
Password
String Password of the user with authorization to connect to the database
3
DatabaseUrl
String URL that enables a connection to the database. For example: jdbc:oracle:thin:@MACHINENAME:1521:SIDNAME
4
DatabaseDriver
String Name of the driver used to establish the connection. For example: oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver
5
DefaultBOPrefix
String Text that is prepended to the name of the business object to make it unique. You can change this later, if required, when Business Object Designer prompts you for business object properties. For more information, see "Provide additional information".
6
TraceFileName
String File into which i2ADWODA writes trace information. If the file does not exist, i2ADWODA creates it in the \ODA\i2ADW directory. If the file already exists, i2ADWODA appends to it. i2ADWODA names the file according to the naming convention. For example, if the agent is named i2ADWODA, it generates a trace file named i2ADWODAAtrace.txt. Use this property to specify a different name for this file.
7
TraceLevel
Integer Level of tracing enabled for i2ADWODA
8
MessageFile
String

Name of the error and message file.

i2ADWODA displays the filename according to the naming convention. For example, if the agent is named i2ADWODA, the value of the message file property displays asi2ADWODAAtrace.txt.

Important:
The error and message file must be located in the \ODA\messages directory.

Use this property to verify or specify an existing file.

Important:
Correct the name of the message file if the default value displayed in Business Object Designer represents a non-existent file. If the name is not correct when you move forward from this dialog box, Business Object Designer displays an error message in the window from which the ODA was launched. This message does not popup in Business Object Designer. Failing to specify a valid message file causes the ODA to run without messages.

Expand nodes and select tables, views, stored procedures, and synonyms/nicknames

After you configure all initialization properties for i2ADWODA, Business Object Designer connects to the specified database and displays a tree with all the schema names in the database. These names, which are presented as nodes in the tree, are expandable. Click on them to display all the tables, views, stored procedures, and synonyms/nicknames in each schema. Figure 7 illustrates this dialog box with some schema expanded.

Figure 7. Tree of schema with expanded nodes


To identify all the database objects that store data for the generated business object definition, select all the required tables, views, stored procedures, and synonyms/nicknames and click Next. For information on how to filter the objects returned, see the Business Object Development Guide.

The schema name ALL SCHEMAS is used to facilitate the retrieval of objects such as tables and views from databases that don't have schemas associated with the objects. When you expand ALL SCHEMAS, a tree is shown with tables, views, stored procedures, and synonyms/nicknames. When each of these nodes is expanded, all the relevant objects from the database appear, regardless of the schema to which the object belongs.

Confirm selection of database objects

After you identify all the database objects to be associated with the generated business object definition, Business Object Designer displays the dialog box with only the selected tables, views, stored procedures, and synonyms/nicknames. Figure 8 illustrates this dialog box.

Figure 8. Confirming selection of database objects


This window provides the following options:

Generate the definition

After you confirm the database objects, the next dialog box informs you that Business Object Designer is generating the definitions.

Provide additional information

If the i2ADWODA needs additional information, Business Object Designer displays the BO Properties window, which prompts you for the information.

In the BO Properties window, enter or change the following information:

Note:
If a field in the BO Properties dialog box has multiple values, the field appears to be empty when the dialog box first displays. Click in the field to display a drop-down list of its values.

Figure 9. Associating Stored Procedures with Stored Procedure Attributes


The stored procedure attributes to be added to the business object can be associated with one of the stored procedures in the database in that schema. You can choose a stored procedure from a drop down list of all stored procedures in the database in that schema, against each stored procedure attribute. This information will generate the necessary ASI information for that attribute.

The ASI (application-specific information) for the object level will look like TN=tableName

And for the attribute level, the ASI will look like CN=ColumnName

If a business object is being generated from a stored procedure, and if i2 Active Data Warehouse Adapter stored procedure attributes, such as SPForCreate, are associated with it, then the ODA provides a list of all stored procedure names in that schema against the stored procedure attributes and enables you to associate the required stored procedure with the business object. This will generate the ASI for the i2 ADW Adapter stored procedure attribute as follows:

SPN=stored procedure Name; IN=a1:a2; OUT=b1:b2; IO=c1:c2

Where IN means the parameter of the stored procedure is INPUT type, OUT means the parameter is OUTPUT type, and IO means it is INPUT/OUTPUT type. The ODA will not set RS to true or false on the ASI, so you need to set it manually.

The verbs added to the business object are the standard verbs, essentially Retrieve, RetrieveByContent, Create, Update and Delete.

If the return parameter of the stored procedure is of ResultSet Type, the ODA will analyst the result set and create a business object, making the columns of the result set attributes of the business object. The ASI for the stored procedure columns will be set as CN=StoredProcedureColumnName. The ODA sets the key attributes based on the JDBC metadata information returned by the driver. If none is returned, the ODA does not mark any attributes by default as keys. All other attributes, such as length and type, are set as for the attributes generated from tables.

Save the definition

After you provide all required information in the BO Properties dialog box and click OK, Business Object Designer displays the final dialog box in the wizard. Here, you can save the definition to the server or to a file, or you can open the definition for editing in Business Object Designer. For more information, and to make further modifications, see the Business Object Development Guide.

Copyright IBM Corp. 1997, 2004