The structure of application-specific business objects in the WebSphere Business Integration system is set by Ariba Buyer and mirrors the structure of the Ariba Buyer message object. Ariba Buyer currently supports two types of message object:
These message types are converted to business objects of one type or the other. Most Ariba Buyer events are of the request-response type.
Business objects inherit their names from the matching Ariba Buyer message objects. The names combine structural divisions, using the Ariba variant and partition names, and topic name. For example, SAP_NA_PurchaseOrderPush.
Business objects contain two sets of fields:
The common fields are described in Table 13, and the additional fields in Table 14 and Table 15.
Table 13. Required fields for all business objects
Required field | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
Variant | String | Name of the variant that sent or will receive this message. |
Partition | String | Name of the partition that sent or will receive this message. |
TopicName | String |
Uniquely identifies an event. Default key value when creating business object definitions. |
ReplyKey | String |
Uniquely identifies the message. Generated by the integration channel for asynchronous events only. |
Table 14 lists the additional fields required for all business objects of Request-Response type only.
Table 14. Required fields for Request-Response business objects
Required field | Cardinality | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
RequestSchema | 1 |
Specified by MergedSchemaName (if present) or SchemaName in MessageConfiguration.table. | Specifies request data types. |
PullSchema_<n> | N |
One PullSchema exists for each Signature.Pull.Schema type defined in MessageDefinition.table. | Specifies response data types. |
Table 15 lists the additional fields required for all business
objects of Subscribe type only.
Table 15. Required fields for Subscribe business objects
Required field | Cardinality | Description |
---|---|---|
SubscribeSchema | N |
An attribute specifies the inbound object type for each schema defined in the MessageDefinition.table. |
Every business object contains a verb, which describes how the data in the application-specific business object should be handled by the receiving application. Ariba Buyer defines a set of operations that are similar to verbs, but that describe only how incoming data should be loaded into the Ariba Buyer database.
Verbs and operations are handled as follows:
Table 16 shows the correlation between incoming application-specific business object verbs and Ariba Buyer operations.
Table 16. Correlation between ASBO verbs and Ariba Buyer operations
Verb (WBI) | Operation (Ariba Buyer) | Action |
---|---|---|
Create | Create | Creates any new objects in Ariba Buyer. |
Delete | Delete |
Removes from Ariba Buyer any objects that are in the message. |
Retrieve | N/A | Ariba Buyer cannot perform retrieves. |
Update | "Load And Delete" |
Updates new data values for existing objects, creates new objects, and deletes objects in Ariba Buyer that do not exist in the incoming message. |
ABUpdate | Update |
Updates new data values for existing objects. Does not create new objects or delete objects in Ariba Buyer that do not exist in the incoming message. |
Load | Load |
Updates new data values for existing objects and creates new objects. |
Update_And_Delete | "Update And Delete" |
Updates new data values for existing objects. If the object does not exist in the incoming message, it is deleted from Ariba Buyer. |
Update_Elements_Only | "Update Elements Only" | Updates vector objects. |
The connector has various properties that you can set on its business object attributes. The tables below list the attributes and their values.
Table 17 lists simple attributes.
Attribute | Property |
---|---|
Name | Specifies the business object field name. |
Type | Specifies the business object field type. |
MaxLength | 255 by default. |
IsKey |
Each business object must have at least one key attribute, which you specify by setting the key property to true for an attribute. |
IsForeighKey | Not used. |
Is Required | Not used. |
AppSpecInfo | Holds the original Java type. |
DefaultValue |
Specifies a default value that the connector uses for a simple attribute in the inbound business object if the attribute is not set and is a required attribute. |
Table 18 shows the properties for child object attributes.
Table 18. Child object attributes
Attribute | Description |
---|---|
Name | Specifies the business object field name. |
Type | Specifies the business object field type. |
Contained
ObjectVersion |
For all attributes that represent child business objects, this property specifies the child's business object version number. |
Relationship | If the child is a container attribute, this is set to Containment. |
IsKey | Set to true if the attribute name equals UniqueName, otherwise it is set to false. |
IsForeighKey | Not used. |
Is Required | Not used. |
AppSpecInfo | Holds the original Ariba Buyer field name. |
Cardinality | Set to N if the type represents an array or vector, otherwise set to 1. |
Application-specific information provides the connector with application-dependent instructions on how to process business objects. If you extend or modify a business object definition, you must make sure that the application-specific information in the definition matches the syntax that the connector expects.
Application-specific information can be specified on the business object and also on each business object attribute.
The application-specific information for the business object handles two key properties for the adapter for Ariba Buyer. They are:
The application-specific information for the business object attributes holds the original Ariba Buyer-specific java type.