Converting NameValue data to business objects

This section provides the following information on how the NameValue data handler converts strings or streams formatted in name-value pairs to a business object:

NameValue string requirements

The NameValue data handler makes the following assumptions about serialized data:

A token representing the attribute count is optional. If the child meta-object attribute ValidateAttrCount is true, the data handler looks for a token that contains a count of the attributes in the business object. If the attribute count is specified, it must accurately reflect the number of attributes in the business object definition.

When the NameValue data handler reads a file in name-value format, it takes the following special processing steps to assign to a business object attribute the CxIgnore or CxBlank attribute value:

Figure 36 shows an example of serialized data in NameValue format.

Figure 36. Example of NameValue data

BusinessObject=Customer
  Verb=Update 
          AttributeCount=7
          CustomerID=103
          CustomerName=Thai Inc.
          Cust_Phone_Number=CxIgnore
          ProductName=GoodProduct 
          Address=2 
            BusinessObject=Address
              Verb=Update
              AttributeCount=3
              AddressID=105
              AddressLine=CxIgnore
              ObjectEventID=12345
            BusinessObject=Address
              Verb=Delete
              AttributeCount=3
              AddressID=106
              AddressLine=2758 Forest Avenue
              ObjectEventID=CxIgnore 
          Item=1
            BusinessObject=Item
              Verb=Update 
              ItemID=107
              ItemName=CxIgnore
              ObjectEventID=Obj_201
          ObjectEventID=SampleConnector_894927711_2

In this example, entries indicate the following:

Serialized-data processing

The NameValue data handler converts strings or streams formatted in name-value pairs to a business object as follows:

  1. The data handler creates a business object to contain the data in the string or stream.
  2. The data handler sets the verb in the business object. The data handler assumes that the verb for the top-level business object is in the second name-value pair in the data. Note that child business objects may not have verbs set.
  3. If the ValidateAttrCount child meta-object attribute is set to true, the data handler validates that the number of attributes in the file matches the number of attributes in the business object definition.
  4. The data handler parses the serialized data.

You can specify the attributes in the serialized data in any order for the string-to-business object conversion because the data handler does a name and value association.

Copyright IBM Corp. 1997, 2004