Business objects for Exchange Server

The adapter for Exchange Server supports business objects based on the Exchange Outlook Message object model. The supported business objects include the following high level objects:

In addition, there are two objects that represent common attribute data:

Note:
Business object definitions may be updated in new releases. At the time of the writing of this manual, TaskItem RecurrenceItems are not accessible to the connector. Please refer to the Release Notes to determine if this is still the case with your release or if there are any other changes. If you are running a previous version of this adapter, you will need to refresh any updated business object definitions. To do so, load the file into the BO Designer (refer to "Connector installation" for the directory path) and save to your broker repository.

Note that the current release of the adapter does not support the Attachment business object.

If the Exchange Item has no children, a single adapter business object represents the entire Exchange business entity. For example, an appointment without a recurrence pattern is represented by the AppointmentItem business object.

If the Exchange Item has a hierarchical structure, then the adapter business object represents the parent business entity and its attributes reference child objects that carry any child information. For example, a recurring appointment would be represented by the parent AppointmentItem business object with an attribute that points to a RecurrencePattern child business object.

Attribute properties

The process of defining business object attributes includes setting a range of properties. Table 9 shows the properties for simple attributes.

Table 9. Properties for simple attributes

Attribute Description
Name Specifies the name of the attribute
Type Specifies the data type of the attribute (Boolean, Date, Integer, or String)
MaxLength N/A
IsKey Specifies whether the attribute is a key field
IsForeignKey N/A
IsRequired Specifies whether the attribute is a required field in the business object
AppSpecificInfo Specifies the URI used to access this attribute.
DefaultValue If specified, this value is used by the connector if one is not set in the inbound business object, and if the connector's UseDefaults property is set to true.

Table 10 shows the properties for parent business object attributes that reference child objects.

Table 10. Properties for attributes that reference child business objects

Attribute Description
Name Specifies the name of the child business object
Type Specifies the data type of the child business object. The following data types are valid:
  • Recipient
  • RecurrencePattern
ContainedObjectVersion Specifies the version of the child business object.
Relationship Specifies that the referenced object is contained in the parent object.
IsKey N/A
IsForeignKey N/A
IsRequired Specifies whether the attribute is required for the business object.
AppSpecificInfo N/A
Cardinality Specifies the number of child objects that can be referenced by a particular attribute. The value can be 1 (if only one object can be referenced) or N (if multiple objects can be referenced).

Application-specific information

Application-specific information provides the connector with application-dependent information for manipulating and processing business objects. If you extend or modify a business object definition, you must make sure that the application-specific information in the definition matches the syntax that the connector expects.

Application-specific information can be specified for the business object and also for each business object attribute.

Application-specific text for business objects

The application-specific information for the business object handles two key properties for the adapter: the OutlookMessageClass and the ContentClass . The OutlookMessageClass specifies the name of the Exchange item that corresponds to the current Exchange Adapter business object. The ContentClass specifies the webDAV namespace that corresponds to the current Exchange Adapter business object. The following table provides the appropriate correlations:

Table 11. Application-specific text for business objects

Adapter Business
Ob ject
OutlookMessageClass ContentClass
AppointmentItem IPM:Appointment urn:content-classes:appointment
ContactItem IPM:Contact urn:content-classes:person
MailItem IPM:Note urn:content-classes:message
TaskItem IPM:Task urn:content-classes:task

Application-specific text for simple attributes

The connector uses application-specific text for simple attributes, as described in Table 12

Table 12. Application-specific text for simple attributes

Parameter Description
PropertyName Specifies the URI corresponding to this attribute.
Access Specifies whether the current attribute is read/write (Get/Put) or read-only (Get).

Application-specific text for verbs

The connector uses application-specific text for verbs, as described in Table 13:

Table 13. Application-specific text for verbs

Parameter Description
SetToNullOnCxIgnore Determines the behavior when CxIgnore and CxBlank are encountered while processing a service call request. This value is either true or false. If true and CxIgnore or CxBlank is encountered, then the value is set to null. If false and CxIgnore is encountered, then the value is not changed. If false and CxBlank is encountered, then the value is set to null.

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