Specifying Structured Data as Business Object

Stardust provides support for Business Objects. Please refer to chapter Business Objects Business Objects of the Concepts handbook Concepts Handbook in the Stardust Documentation for details on Business Objects used in Stardust.

Each structured data has a Business Object Management properties tab to support configuring the data as a Business Object.

• Specifying the Structured Data as Business Object
• Defining Business Object Relationships
• Automatic Department Creation

Specifying the Structured Data as Business Object

To enable a structured data to be used as Business Object:

1. Open the Business Object Management properties tab
2. Select a Primary Key field
3. Select a name field

Selecting a Primary Key Field

To set a primary key field, select an element from the referenced structured type in the Primary Key Field drop-down list.

Figure: Selecting a Primary Key Field

The list contains data from the referenced Structured Type that meet all of the following criteria:

• Top Level Field
• Primitive Type
• Cardinality = Exactly One
• Indexed Property is enabled

The Primary Key should be the data that makes the Business Object unique.

Selecting a Name Field

The content of the drop-down list for the Name Field list is the same as for the Primary Key Field drop-down list. The selected name field is used as label for Instances of the Business Object.

Figure: Selecting a Name Field

The selected name is for example displayed in tooltips.

Defining Business Object Relationships

Relationships between the in-scope Business Object and another Business Object can be defined in the Object Relationships section. For each relationship, you should define the references for the relationship and labels for these references.

Click Add to create a new relationship. Entry fields appear in the Object Relationships table.

Figure: Object Relationships

Define the following properties in the table:

• Other Business Object - select the target (Other) Business Object in the drop-down list, which contains a list of all Business Objects.
  Note that the list also contains the in-scope Business Object to support creating references to itself.

  

• Other Role - specify a label for the reference from the in-scope business object field to the target (Other) business object field

  

• Reference to Other Object - Contains a list of top level fields from the in-scope (source) business object (e.g. the in-scope Structured Data) except the primary key. Select the field that provides the reference in the in-scope (source) business object to the target (Other) Business Object.

  

• This Role - specify a label for the target (Other) business object field to the in-scope (source) business object field reference.
• Reference to this Object - contains a list of top level fields from the target (Other) Business Object except the primary key. Select the field that provides the reference in the target (Other) Business Object to the in-scope (source) Business Object.

  

Relationship Rules

The following relationship rules apply:

• multiple relationships may be defined
• relationships generally refer to a different Business Object, but a Business Object may refer to itself in a recursive relationship.
• the key reference fields must match type (e.g. String and String)
• none of the fields can be empty

Example Relationships

The following examples demonstrate standard and recursive relationships.

For the concepts of these two kind of relationships, please refer to section Creating Business Object Relationships Creating Business Object Relationships of chapter Business Objects Business Objects in the Concepts handbook. Concepts Handbook of the Stardust Documentation.

Example- Establishing a Standard Business Object Relationship

In this example, we establish a relationship between two Business Objects Vendor and Product.

The Structured Data Type for data Product contains the fields

• ProductID
• ProductName
• VendorID

with cardinality Exactly One.

Figure: Structured Data Type for Product

It is specified as Business Object with primary key ProductID and name field ProductName.

Figure: Business Object Definition for Product Data

The Structured Data Type for data Vendor contains the fields

• VendorID - cardinality Exactly One
• VendorName - cardinality Exactly One
• ProductIDs - cardinality Zero or more

Figure: Structured Data Type for Vendor

It is specified as Business Object with primary key VendorID and name field VendorName.

Figure: Business Object Definition for Vendor Data

Now we set up a relationship between these two Business Objects. For the Vendor Business Object we set the following:

1. Other Business Object: select the Product data to be the Business Object the Vendor Business Object should reference.

   

2. Other Role: enter Products as label for this reference.
3. Reference to Other Object: select element ProductIDs, which references the ProductId field as primary key of the Product Business Object.

   

4. This Role: enter Vendor as label for the reference from the Product Business Object to the in-scope Vendor Business Object.
5. Reference to This Object: select element VendorID from the Product Business Object to reference the VendorID primary key of the in-scope Vendor Business Object.

   

The established relationship now looks similar as in the following screenshot:

Figure: Standard Example for Business Object Relationship

The ProductIDs field in the Vendor Business Object references the ProductID field (the primary key) in the Product Business Object. The label for this reference is Products.

The reciprocal relationship is established automatically for the Product Business Object. Open the Data properties view for the Product data and switch to the Business Object Management tab. You see the relationship is set up for the Product Business Object in the following way:

Figure: Reciprocal Relationship

The VendorID field in the Product Business Object references the VendorID field (the primary key) in the Vendor Business Object. The label for this reference is Vendor.

Example- Establishing a Recursive Business Object Relationship

Now we establish a recursive relationship for a Business Object Employee.

The Structured Data Type for data Employee contains the fields

• EmployeeID
• EmployeeName
• ManagerID

with cardinality Exactly One.

Figure: Structured Data Type for Employee

It is specified as Business Object with primary key EmployeeID and name field EmployeeName.

Figure: Business Object Definition for Employee Data

To set up a recursive relationship, we enter the following settings for the Employee Business Object:

1. Other Business Object: select the Employee data to create a reference to itself.

   

2. Other Role: enter Manager as label for this reference
3. Reference to Other Object: select element ManagerID which references the ManagerID field as primary key of the other Employee Business Object.

   

4. This Role: enter Reports as label for the reference from the other Employee Business Object to this Employee Business Object
5. Reference to This Object: select element ManagerID from the other Employee Business Object to reference the ManagerID primary key of this Employee Business Object.

   

The established recursive relationship now looks similar as in the following screenshot:

Figure: Recursive Business Object Relationship Example

In one direction, the ManagerID field references the EmployeeID field as the primary key of Business Object Employee. The label for this reference is Manager.

In the other direction, the ManagerID field references the EmployeeID field as the primary key of the other Business Object instance and the label for this reference is Reports.

Automatic Department Creation

Business Objects can be configured to automatically spawn departments for those Organizations that use the Business Object Primary Key as a department variable. A new department will be spawned whenever a unique Primary Key value is saved for its Business Object Instances.

To specify auto-department generation, select one or more Organizations from the multi-select box. The multi-select box contains all Organizations that support departments using the in-scope Business Object.

The Primary Key of the current Business Object becomes the Department Parameter.

Figure: Automatic Department creation

On Department creation, the Business Object's primary key is the Department ID, and the Business Object's Name is the Department Name.

Note
Please take care when modifying Business Object Instances that are configured for Automatic Department Generation! Modifying the Primary Key value will result in a new Department being created. Modifying the Name Field value will result in the existing Department being renamed to reflect the new name.

Example Automatic Department Creation

For example, suppose the Fund Business Object's Primary Key is FundId. A department Fund Processing uses the Fund data with its Primary Key as data path as department variable.

Figure: Fund Processing Department Properties

The Fund Business Object is configured for Automatic Department Generation for this Organization.

Figure: Configure Business Object for Automatic Department Generation

A new Business Object Instance is created with FundId = EQTF9.

Figure: Create Business Object Instance

As a result, a new EQTF9 Department will be created for the Fund Processing Organization.

Figure: Automatically created Department