Managing Business Objects (Technology Preview)

The Business Object Manager view provides functionality to manage Business Objects. It allows to:

• search for Business Object Instances
• find corresponding Process Instances
• update Business Object Instances
• add Business Object Instances independently of Processes

Note
The Business Object Manager view is technology preview only. It may not be functionally complete and is not intended for production use!

For details on Business Objects used in Stardust, please refer to chapter Business Objects in the Stardust Concepts section.

To open the Business Object Manager view, select Business Object Management in the Business Object Management section of the Business Control Center perspectives launch panel.

Figure: Select Business Object

• Searching for Business Object Instances
• Creating Business Object Instances

For details on defining structured data as Business Object, please refer to section Using the Data as Business Object (Technology Preview) of chapter Specifying Data in the Business Process Modeling Handbook.

Searching for Business Object Instances

Select a Business Object in the drop-down list. The Business Object name is preceded by the model name.

Figure: Select Business Object

The Search area now populates with the indexed fields of the selected Business Object.

Figure: Fields populated for selected Business Object

Start a search by typing a value in a field and tabbing out. A search is directly initiated on tab out and the Search Results will populate.

To initiate more specific searches, type values in additional data fields. The search interpretes the fields in AND conditions.

• Viewing Business Object Search Results
• Viewing Business Object Process Instance Search Results
• Viewing and Updating Business Object Data

Viewing Business Object Search Results

You find the results of the Business Object Instance Search presented in a table underneath the search fields.

Figure: Table with search results

The table provides controls for:

• specifying the number of entries to show

  

• table filtering

  

• sorting on any column where applicable

  

• pagination

  

Select a row in the table to initiate a Process Search for the selected Business Object Instance. The latest version of the Data object will be populated in the Data section.

Click the Refresh icon to re-initiate the search and refresh the view and search results.

Viewing Business Object Process Instance Search Results

The search results of a Process Instance Search are presented in a table within the OTHER VERSIONS OF THIS <BUSINESS OBJECT LABEL> section.

The table supports the following functionality:

• specifying the number of entries to show
• table filtering
• sorting on any column where applicable
• pagination

Figure: Business Object Process Instance Search Result

Viewing and Updating Business Object Data

The data populated in the Data section presents one of the following:

• the newest version of the Business Object Instance selected in the Business Object Search Results
  or
• the Business Object Instance of the selected Process Instance, if a Process Instance is selected in the Process Instances Search Results table

All fields in the Business Object Instance are displayed, including those not indexed. You can modify the fields.

Figure: Business Object Data in Process Instance Search Result

To update the changes for the Business Object Instance, click the Save button.

Note
Only administrators have the authorization to update existing Business Object Instances.

References to Other Business Objects

References to Other Business Objects appear as links under the RELATED OBJECTS heading.

Figure: Related Objects

The number of referenced instances are shown in parenthesis in each link.

To view the referenced Business Object Instances, click a reference link. A dialog opens with a table listing the referenced Business Object Instances.

Figure: Referenced Business Objects Instances

To remove a referenced Business Object Instance, click a table entry to deselect it and click Save.

To add a new referenced Business Object Instance, first enter values in the top fields to initiate a search, then select the instances returned in the table below and click Save. You can also select multiple instances using the CTRL key.

For details on Business Object relationships, please refer to section Defining Business Object Relationships of chapter Specifying Data in the Business Process Modeling Handbook.

Note
When performing a search, the existing referenced instances will appear selected in the search results. Clearing the selection of any of these references will remove the reference when Save is clicked.

Creating Business Object Instances

Administrators can add new Business Object Instances in the Business Object Manager view. These instances will not be bound to any Process Instance. To add a Business Object Instance:

1. Select a Business Object from the adjacent drop-down list. The Business Object name is preceded by the model name.

   

2. Click the Create button on the left side of the pane

   

All of the fields in the selected Business Object will populate in the area underneath the top select boxes.

Values can be entered in the fields. To add the configured Business Object Instance, click the Save button.

Figure: Save the Data

Note
New Instances of the referenced/related Business Objects cannot be added.

Importing Data

To import data from a CSV file, click the Import icon in the toolbar.

The CSV import dialog opens, where you can browse to the CSV file.

Note that the CSV file needs to contain the following:

• a header row with the IDs of all top level fields of the Customer
• rows with values for all Customers to be loaded

Figure: Importing Business Object Data as CSV