The Business Select Source dialog box in Business Object Wizard provides the following mechanisms for moving through the nodes of the source-node hierarchy:
The ways to expand a source node given in step 8 describe how to display all child nodes of an expandable node. To limit which objects are displayed, you can use either of the following menu items when right-clicking a node name (see Figure 39):
The Apply Filter menu item allows you to specify a filter, which can limit which of the currently selected source nodes opens. When you click this menu item, Business Object Wizard displays the Apply filter to node dialog box, as shown in Figure 44.
Figure 44. Specifying a filter
to limit results
In the filter text, you can use the asterisk (*) character as a wildcard (to represent zero or more matching characters). This wildcard character can appear in any position and in as many positions as required. For example, SAP*, *SAP, *SAP*, or *S*AP*.
When you click OK, Business Object Wizard searches the currently retrieved child nodes of the parent node for those whose names match the filter text. When it expands this parent node, it displays only those child nodes whose names match this text.
For example, in the sample Roman ODA, the Uulius node has four child nodes: Ares, Cronus, Atlas, and Metis. If you apply the filter in Figure 44 to the Uulius node ("A*"), Business Object Wizard displays this node as shown in Figure 45 when you expand the node.
Figure 45. Filtered node after
expansion
If you specify a filter at the top of a node and then expand the node, you can apply the same filter to child objects by right-clicking on the node and clicking Apply parent's filter. If you click Retrieve all items menu item, the parent node filter is applied to all elements.
The Search for items menu item allows you to specify a search pattern, which can limit which source nodes Business Object Wizard selects from the data source. When you click Search for items, Business Object Wizard displays the Enter a Search Pattern dialog box. Figure 46 illustrates this dialog box.
Figure 46. Specifying a search
pattern to limit retrieval results
The Enter a Search Pattern dialog box provides a description of the search criteria that your search pattern can use. In Figure 46, the text in this dialog box specifies that the search pattern can consist of one letter. The ODA provides a customized description of the search criteria. Make sure that the search pattern you enter follows the described search criteria. Otherwise, the ODA throws an exception.
When you click OK, Business Object Wizard searches the data source for child nodes of the parent node whose names match the search pattern. When it expands this parent node, it displays only those child nodes whose names match this pattern.
Instead of moving through the source-node hierarchy, you can specify an exact path for the desired object. To do so, click Use this object instead, at the upper right of the Select Source dialog box. Business Object Wizard displays the Object Path dialog box, shown in Figure 47, in which you specify the path.
Figure 47. Specifying an object's
path.
You specify the object path as the fully qualified path of the source node (from the top-level parent node down to the desired node). Node names within this path are separated with a colon (:).
To associate an operating-system file with the current node of the source-node hierarchy, right-click on a node and click Associate files (see Figure 48). When you associate a file with a source node, the ODA uses the file as the source for that source node's data (instead of using the ODA's data source).
Figure 48. Associating a file
with a source node
When you click the Associate files menu item, Business Object Wizard displays the Open window shown in Figure 49. From this window, you can browse the file structure and choose the file to associate with the current node.
Figure 49. Open window for
selecting the file to associate
After you have selected the file to associate with the source node, click Open. When Business Object Wizard returns control to the Select Source dialog box, the file you selected is displayed under the source node with which it is associated, as Figure 50 shows.