Specifying business object attribute properties

The i2 connector has various properties that you can set on its business object attributes. This section describes how the connector interprets several of these properties and describes how to set them when modifying a business object.

The following table shows the properties for simple attributes.

Attribute Description
Name Unique name of the attribute
Type All simple attributes should be of type String.
MaxLength Not used
IsKey Each business object must have at least one key attribute, which you specify by setting the key property to true for an attribute. The i2 connector does not check for this property.
IsForeighKey Not used.
Is Required Set to true if the attribute must have a value in the outgoing XML message.
AppSpecInfo Not used
DefaultValue Specifies a default value that the connector uses for a simple attribute in the inbound business object if the attribute is not set and is a required attribute.

Rule: You must set and use the default value for the attributes of the polling metaobjects and MO_Instance metaobject. If the default value is set for the instanceId, and no value is set in the incoming business object, the connector takes the default value and tries to connect with this instance.

The following table shows the properties for child object attributes.

Attribute Description
Name Name of the child object.
Type Business object type for the child.
Contained
ObjectVersion
For all attributes that represent child business objects, this property specifies the child's business object version number.
Relationship If the child is a container attribute, this is set to Containment.
IsKey Not used
IsForeighKey Not used.
Is Required For relationship details between XML elements and requiredness, see Chapter 3, "XML data handler," in the Data Handler Guide.
AppSpecInfo For information on this property, see "Identifying business object application-specific information",
Cardinality For relationship details between XML elements and cardinality, see Chapter 3, "XML data handler," in the Data Handler Guide.

Special attribute values

Simple attributes in business objects can have the special value, CxIgnore. When it receives a business object from the integration broker, the connector ignores all attributes with a value of CxIgnore. It is as if those attributes were invisible to the connector. No XML is generated for them.

Because the i2 connector requires at least one primary key attribute to create a business object, you need to ensure that business objects passed in to the connector should have at least one primary key that is not set to CxIgnore.

Additionally, The i2 connector assumes that no attribute of business object type has a value of CxBlank. Simple (String) attributes with a value of CxBlank are included in an XML document. Empty double quotation marks ("") in an XML document are used as the PCDATA equivalent of CxBlank.

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