This section describes how to use the COM ODA in Business Object Designer to generate business object definitions. For information on launching and using Business Object Designer, see IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapters Business Object Development Guide.
The ODA can be run from any machine that can mount the file system on which the meta-data repository (the type library files) resides, using the start_COMODA.bat start file. This file contains start parameters, including the paths to certain required COM and connector .jar files. These .jar files must also be accessible from the machine on which you are running the ODA.
The ODA for COM has a default name of COMODA. The name can be changed by changing the value of the AGENTNAME variable in the start script.
To start the ODA, run this command:
start_COMODA
Note that this startup file requires that the directory of the Java compiler (javac.exe), be included in the PATH environment variable. For example, if javac.exe is in the directory c:\jdk131_02\bin, then include the following line in start_COMODA.bat:
set PATH=c:\jdk131_02\bin;%PATH%
Business Object Designer provides a wizard that guides you through the steps to generate a business object definition using the ODA. The steps are as follows:
Select the agent
After you click Next on the Select Agent screen, the Business Object Wizard - Step 2 of 6 - Configure Agent screen appears. Figure 11 illustrates this screen with sample values.
Figure 11. Configure Agent screen
The properties you set on this screen are described in Table 15. You can save all the values you enter on this screen to a profile. Instead of retyping the property data next time you run the ODA, you simply select a profile from the drop-down menu and re-use the saved values. You can save multiple profiles, each with a different set of specified values.
Table 15. Configure Agent properties
Property name | Default value | Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
TypeLibraryPath | None | String | (required) The path to the local type library file (.tlb, .dll, .ole, .olb, or .exe) that defines the COM interface. |
PackageName | None | String | (required) The package in which all the proxy files generated by COMProxy are stored. COMProxy generates the Java proxy objects that the connector requires to invoke COM components. |
SaveToDirectory | None | String | (required) The directory in which the package specified in PackageName is stored. |
JarFileName | None | String | (required) The .jar file in which the proxy classes generated by the ODA will be stored Note that the ODA determines the directory location where this file is placed. |
BOPrefix | None | String | The prefix that the ODA will add to the names of the business objects it generates. |
TraceFileName | None | String | The name of the trace message file; for example, COMODAtrace.txt. |
TraceLevel | 5 | Integer | (required) The tracing level (from 0 to 5) for the Agent. For details about tracing levels, see Tracing. |
MessageFile | None | String | (required) The name of the message file that contains all the messages displayed by the ODA. For COM, the name of this file is BIA_COMODAAgent.txt. If you do not correctly specify the name of the message file, the ODA will run without messages. |
The Business Object Wizard - Step 3 of 6 - Select Source screen appears, as illustrated in Figure 12. The screen lists the components that have been defined in the COM type library file. Use this screen to select any number of COM components for which the ODA will generate business object definitions.
Figure 12. Select Source screen
The Business Object Wizard - Step 4 of 6 - Confirm source nodes for business object definitions screen appears. It shows the object(s) you selected.
Figure 13. Confirm source node screen
Click Back to make changes or Next to confirm that the list is correct.
The Business Object Wizard - Step 5 of 6 - Generating business objects... screen appears with a message stating that the wizard is generating the business objects.
Note that if you selected a method (see Select a business object), that has a parameter or return value with a Java type of Object or Object[], the ODA displays the BO Properties screen, illustrated in Figure 14. Use this screen to map an object of such a type to either a COM component or String. The drop-down menu in the Value column lists only components from the current type library. For a complete list of the mapping of COM and Java types to business object ASI, see Table 14.
Figure 14. BO Properties screen
The ODA assigns a name to this screen that provides details about the component name, the method name of the component that the ODA is currently processing, and name of the method parameter whose data type is Object or Object[].