During the analysis and design of the application, identify
the bean data it needs.
For each type of data, check whether the data definition
file or the processor self-defined file already contains a definition
that you can use.
Create Java Beans
as data model for the application. Use references for bean data elements
that have already been defined elsewhere, or create data element definitions
for the ones that have not.
If the bean data is to appear in a context, include a reference
to it in the context beancollection definition.
Instantiate the bean data elements needed by the application.
The toolkit automatically instantiates bean data elements referenced
by a context when it instantiates the context. You can instantiate
other bean data elements at any time by using the BeanCollection bColl=DataElement
readObject(String) method. You can also create a BeanCollection instance
by API such as: BeanCollection bColl=new BeanCollection(new Customer()).
To obtain the value of a bean collection, use getValueAt(String
key) method in which you pass a simple or composite key. Do not use
the dot character (.) in the key parameter in getValueAt(String
key) method, because the dot character is the logic separation char.
Compared to Keyed Collection, bean collection's key parameter cannot
contain the asterisk character (*). If an asterisk
character is used as key to get value, an exception occurs.
To set the value of a bean collection, use the setValueAt(String,
Object) method, where String can be a simple or a composite key. Note
that if you pass in a data element name that does not exist in the
collection, an exception occurs.
What to do next
For more information about how to use bean data element,
see the Javadoc for DataElement, DataField, DataCollection, KeyedCollection
and BeanCollection.