Generating business object definitions

This section describes how to use Ariba Buyer ODA in Business Object Designer to generate business object definitions. For information on launching and using Business Object Designer, see IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapters Business Object Development Guide.

Starting the ODA

The ODA can be run from any machine that can mount the file system on which the metadata repository resides, using the start_BuyerODA.bat (WIN) or start_BuyerODA.sh (UNIX) start file. This file contains start parameters, including the paths to certain required Ariba Buyer and connector .jar files. These .jar files must also be accessible from the machine on which you are running the ODA.

The ODA for Ariba Buyer has a default name of BuyerODA. The name can be changed by changing the value of the AGENTNAME variable in the start script.

To start the ODA, run this command:

start_BuyerODA <Ariba server root path>

For example,

start_BuyerODA C:\Ariba\app\Buyer\Server

Running Business Object Designer

Business Object Designer provides a wizard that guides you through the steps to generate a business object definition using the ODA. The steps are as follows:

Select the agent

  1. Start Business Object Designer.
  2. Select File > New Using ODA. The Business Object Wizard - Step 1 of 6 - Select Agent screen appears.
  3. Select the ODA/AGENTNAME (from the start_BuyerODA script) in the Located agents list and click Next.

Figure 5. Select Agent screen

Configure the agent

The Business Object Wizard - Step 2 of 6 - Configure Agent screen appears. The first time you open this screen, it is blank.

In this screen you:

Note:
If the name of the message file is not correctly specified, the ODA will run without messages.

Figure 6. Configure Agent screen

All messages displayed by the Buyer ODA appear in the BuyerODAAgent.txt file, which has a standard message file format. For more information on the range of trace levels and their meaning, refer to "Using log and trace files".

You can also can save all the values you enter on this screen to a profile. Instead of re-typing all the data the next time you run the ODA, you simply select a profile from the drop-down menu and use the saved values.

You can save multiple profiles, each with a different set of specified values.

  1. Use the Profiles menu the first time you run the ODA to create a new profile. In successive uses, you may select an existing profile.
  2. Type the name of each property, its value, type and description.
    Note:
    If you use a profile, the property values are filled in for you.
    Table 15 lists the properties and their possible values.

Table 15. Property values for configuring the ODA

No. Property name Property type Description Required
1 MetadataRepos String Directory where the metadata file repository resides.
For example, C:\temp\metadata
Yes
2 TraceFileName String The name of the trace file. No
3 TraceLevel Integer Trace level for the ODA. Yes
4 MessageFile String The path to the message file. Yes
Note:
The metadata repository is always in the location specified for the MetadataRepos property, found in: <Ariba_server_root>/config/Parameters.table. You can set MetadataRepos to this value, or copy the \metadata directory to another machine and reset the MetadataRepos value accordingly. This is possible because there is no interaction between the ODA and the application during the process of generating business object definitions.

When you have finished, click Next.

Select a business object

The Business Object Wizard - Step 3 of 6 - Select Source screen appears. Use this screen to select any number of MessageConfigurations for which the ODA will generate business object definitions.

The screen lists the variants that have been defined in Ariba Buyer (derived from the structure of the metadata repository). If Ariba Buyer has not been initialized, the list will be empty.

Figure 7. Select Source screen

  1. Select the MessageConfigurations you want to use.
  2. Click Next.

Confirm selection

The Business Object Wizard - Step 4 of 6 - Confirm source nodes for business object definitions screen appears. It shows the MessageConfigurations you selected.

Figure 8. Confirm source nodes screen

Click Back to make changes or Next to confirm the list is correct.

Generate the business object

The Business Object Wizard - Step 5 of 6 - Generating business objects... screen appears.

Figure 9. Generating business objects screen

The message states that the wizard is generating the business objects.

Save the a copy of the business object to a separate file

The Business Object Wizard - Step 6 of 6 - Save business objects screen appears.

Figure 10. Save business objects screen

You can optionally save the generated business object definitions to a file. To do so:

  1. Check Save business objects to a file. A dialog box appears.
  2. Type the location in which you want the copy of the new business object definitions to be saved.

Business Object Designer saves the files to the specified location.

Note:
If you create new custom objects in Ariba Buyer, you must add new business object definitions for them, using the ODA as described in this chapter.

If you have finished working with the ODA, you can shut it down by checking "Shutdown ODA Buyer ODA" before clicking Finish.

Copyright IBM Corp. 1997, 2003