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.
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 18 illustrates this screen for the Hello business object created in Figure 16 and Figure 17.
Figure 18. 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.
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 19 illustrates this screen for the Retrieve verb of the Hello business object created in Figure 16 and Figure 17.
Figure 19. Setting the verb method sequence
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.
For a list of the keywords supported by the CORBA verb ASI, see Table 10.
The Business Object Wizard - Step 6 of 6 - Save business objects screen appears.
Figure 20. 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:
To save the business objects to a file (only after you a have specified a key for the parent-level business object):
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.
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. 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.
On the Attributes tab, 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:
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 21 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 19).
Figure 21. Setting the business object level ASI
On this screen you can modify the ASI of the business object and its supporting verbs.