Specifying business object information

After you create a business object, you can specify the verbs that are valid for the object, the method sequence of a given verb on the object, the business object-level ASI, and the attribute-level ASI. This section describes how to specify this information, using the ODA with Business Object Designer. For a detailed description of these categories of information and what they mean for business object structure in the CORBA connector, see Understanding business objects.

Selecting verbs

In Business Object Designer, the first screen that appears when you finish creating a business object and then open it in a separate window is the BO Properties - Select Verbs for component screen. Figure 19 illustrates this screen for the Hello business object created in Figure 17 and Figure 18.


Figure 19. Select verb for component screen

On this screen you specify the verbs that the business objects supports. The ODA allows you to specify the four supported verbs (Create, Retrieve, Delete, and Update) and assign as actions of each verb n plus two methods, where n equals the number of methods in the corresponding CORBA interface. The two additional methods are those supported by the connector (LoadFromProxy and WriteToProxy). To specify additional verbs beyond the supported four, or to edit verb information after you create a business object, use Business Object Designer.

For details about business object verbs for the CORBA connector, see Verb ASI.

  1. In the Value list for the Verbs property, select the verbs that you want the business object to support. You can select one or more verbs. You can also deselect a verb at any time.

  2. Click OK.

Specifying the verb ASI

For each verb selected in Step 1 of Selecting verbs, a separate window appears where you specify the method sequence that must be executed for the verb.

Figure 20 illustrates this screen for the Retrieve verb of the Hello business object created in Figure 17 and Figure 18.


Figure 20. Setting the verb method sequence

  1. In the Value list for the MethodSequence property, click the method that you want the business object to execute first for the verb. In Figure 20, the method sequence is as follows:

    These methods are provided by the CORBA interface (defined in the IDL file), with the exception of two methods that are provided by the ODA: LoadFromProxy and WriteToProxy.

    By specifying a method sequence for the verb, you are creating the verb ASI that is associated with that verb. If necessary, this verb ASI can be modified later.

  2. Click OK.

For a list of the keywords supported by the CORBA verb ASI, see Table 7.

Open the business object in a separate window

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


Figure 21. Save business objects screen

You can optionally open the business object in a separate window within Business Object Designer, or, after specifying a key for the top-level business object, you can save the generated business object definitions to a file.

To open the business objects in separate windows:

  1. Select Open the new BOs in separate windows. A dialog box appears.
  2. Click Finish. Each business object appears in a separate window where you can view and set the ASI information for the business objects and business object verbs you just created. For details, see Specifying business object information.

To save the business objects to a file (only after you a have specified a key for the parent-level business object, as illustrated in Figure 22):

  1. Select Save a copy of the business objects to a separate 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.

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

Specifying the attribute-level ASI

After you define the verb ASI (by specifying a method sequence that must be executed for each verb), Business Object Designer displays the attributes for the business object. For details about the attribute-level ASI in the CORBA connector, see Attribute-level ASI.

The attributes are listed on the Attributes tab in the order in which they appear in the business object structure, as defined by the numeric value in the Pos column. Simple CORBA object attributes are represented as simple attributes and their ASI contains the original CORBA attribute name and type.

For each attribute, the screen provides the name of the attribute, its type, and the ASI information. Figure 22 illustrates method attribute ASI. The sayHello attribute of the business object has an ASI that maps the attribute to the original CORBA IDL method name. In this example, the original method name is indicated under the App Spec Info column, by the method_name=sayHello ASI.


Figure 22. Setting the attribute ASI

On this screen, you need to specify a key (required by Business Object Designer to validate and save a business object) for each business object for which the ODA has not already specified a key. Note that for certain CORBA types (for example, CORBA_Short, CORBA_Boolean, and CORBA_Char), the ODA sets the keys. Other CORBA types require that you set the key.

You can also use this screen to set child object keys as needed and specify the following information:

Note:
While you can create a new business object through the ODA (running in Business Object Designer), do not configure the foreign key in this manner. The foreign key is non-ASI meta data and therefore must always be configured without the ODA. In Business Object Designer, click File > New to create a new business object without using the ODA.

Specifying business object-level ASI

After specifying the attribute-level ASI, you can view and modify the business object-level ASI. For details about business object-level ASI, see Business object-level ASI.

The business object-level ASI is listed on the General tab. The ASI value that appears in the field Business Object Level Application-specific information contains the name of the proxy class that represents this business object. The connector uses this information to map a proxy class to a business object, and, in the case of a server-side business object (when the connector also runs as a server), the connector uses this information to map an implementation class to a business object.

This screen also lists all the verbs that are supported by the business object and provides the ASI for each verb, as it was defined in Specifying the verb ASI.

Figure 23 illustrates the business object-level ASI for the Hello business object. The only verb that will execute a method sequence for this business object is Retrieve, which has a verb ASI with the method sequence illustrated here (it was originally set in Figure 20).


Figure 23. Setting the business object level ASI

On this screen you can modify the ASI of the business object and its supporting verbs.

Copyright IBM Corp. 1997, 2003