Specifying Retek metadata business objects

This section describes the various application-specific metaobjects needed for event and request processing.

Message family-specific metaobjects

Message family-specific metaobjects provide information for the GETNXT call.

Guidelines for building a message family-specific metaobject

Example: The following table illustrates the content of a sample metaobject for the ORDERPHS message family, where fields 4-6 are extra message family-specific attributes and order_no is the ID field.




For more information on the GETNXT call, see "Creating business objects".

CONSUME metaobjects (ConsumeMO)

CONSUME metaobjects provide application-specific information for the CONSUME-stored procedure call for request processing.

Guidelines for building a CONSUME metaobject

The following is a sample for RDM's CONSUME metaobject. It shows one supported attribute (for facilityType).




For more information on the CONSUME call, see "Creating business objects".

Thread metaobjects (ThreadMO)

Thread metaobjects map threads to the message families they service. Each thread has its own set of metaobjects. The application-specific information at the business object level contains the list of message family metaobject names that the thread handles.

Example:

A thread that services the Item, PurchaseOrder, and Vendor message families has the following metaobjects for the message families:

ItemMO,PurchaseOrderMO,VendorMO

The thread metaobject, for example, Thread1MO, will contain the following string in its application specific information:

ItemMO,PurchaseOrderMO,VendorMO

Retek Primary Key metaobject (KeyMO)

The key metaobject allows you to configure the ID attribute as the primary key for Retek generic business objects to provide more control over the contents of this attribute and ultimately over the manner the events are sequenced inside ICS.

Example: The following illustrates the metaobject definition.




Selecting an attribute as a key in this definition will cause the value of the corresponding attribute in the Retek Message Header to be added to the primary key content, as follows:

To configure the connector to use these settings, you need to set the connector KeyMO property to the name of the metaobject definition.

Results: The effect of these selections on the event processing sequence are the following:

Sequencing considerations for request processing of message-specific business objects

ICS maintains the sequencing of business objects with the same business object type and key values. In Retek business object types, however, different payload structures are used for the same entity type for Create and Modify operations than are used for the Delete message type.

For example, for a purchase order the payload type is:

That causes ICS to look at a Create and Delete business object for the same purchase order as belonging to different entities.

Recommendations: To overcome this problem:

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