Specifying Data Mappings

Contents

In this section, we will see how to create, modify and remove the Data Mappings. We will also cover the Data Mapping Connections and Automatic Completion of Data Mappings.

• Creating Data Mappings
• The Data Mapping Pane
• Automatic Completion of Data Mappings
• Data Mapping Connection
• Editing Data Mappings
• Deleting Data Mappings
• Data Mappings in Process Interface Context

Creating Data Mappings

To create a data mapping for an activity:

1. Open the properties dialog of the activity.
2. Select In Data Mappings on the left side of the dialog.
3. Choose an application context in the data mapping pane. Possible contexts are:
   • default: default context.
     E.g. for manual activities (refer to section Data Mappings of chapter Manual Activities for details)
   • engine: engine context
   • application: Noninteractive application context - for noninteractive applications
   • application specific contexts for interactive applications:
     • externalWebApp: External Web application context, e.g.:

       

     • jfc: JFC application context, e.g.:

       

     • jsf: JSF application context
     • jsp: JSP application context, e.g.:

       

   • processInterface: process interface context, e.g.:

     

     Refer to section Data Mappings in Process Interface Context for details.
4. Select Add.

   
   Figure: Add an In Data Mapping

5. Edit the data mapping details in the details pane.

The Data Mapping Pane

Data mappings are managed in the In Data Mappings and Out Data Mappings panes of the activity properties dialog.

We will cover only In data mappings here; Out data mappings are treated similarly. The In Data Mappings pane is structured to have an overview tree of the data mappings on the left side and a details pane for the chosen data mapping on the right side. Depending on the type of the chosen data mapping, the details pane will show editing controls for:

• The data accessor
• The application accessor (non-interactive applications and JFC and JSF application contexts)
• The ID (interactive application contexts except JFC and JSF context) -
  Please note that IDs containing hyphens, blanks or dots and IDs starting with digits are not supported.

Figure: Structure of the In Data Mapping Pane

In the data mapping pane you can choose a context to add.

Figure: List of Application Context Types

Please refer to the section Application Contexts for Data Mappings of the chapter Workflow Data for detailed information on the context provided for data mappings.

Automatic Completion of Data Mappings

When an input or output mapping is created for an activity with an application attached, the data mapping is automatically connected to the first input/output access point, whose type matches the data of the data mapping and which is not connected via a data mapping already.

If no matching access point according to these rules is available, no completion occurs.

Priority of Preset Access Point

The preset access point of the data mapping follows these rules:

• Parameters are preferred to methods.
• Methods of the concrete Java class are preferred to methods of superclasses.

Data Mapping Connection

After data mappings are created they render automatically in the Process Workbench as connections between the activity symbol and the data symbol. There is at most one data mapping connection between an activity and a data, summarizing all existing data mappings for them. The data mapping direction is indicated by arrows:

• If there is an In data mapping to the activity the connection is labeled with an arrow to the activity.
• If there is an Outdata mapping to the data the connection is labelled with an arrow to the data.
• If there are data mappings for both directions, both arrows are displayed.

Figure: An In Data Mapping Connection

There is a shortcut to create a first data mapping between an activity and a data: in the diagram containing the activity and the data element you can map the data as the activity's input/output. To do this, proceed as follows:

• Right-click the data.
• Select Connect in the context menu.
• Click the activity.

Figure: Create a In Data Mapping

An In data mapping is created, visualized by a data mapping connection.

If you have created at least one link type with source type Data and target type Activity, you have the choice to select between these custom link types and the standard data mapping connection type. Please refer to chapter Specifying Arbitrary Link Types for information on custom link types.

Figure: Select the Link Type for Data Mapping
 

To create an Out data mapping, this works the other way around:

• Right-click the activity first.
• Select Connect in the context menu.
• Click the data.

Figure: Create an Out Data Mapping

Editing Data Mappings

Data mappings can be modified by selecting their connection symbol in the diagram and then editing its properties in the details pane or by opening the properties dialog of the corresponding activity.

Data Mapping Properties Dialog

A possibility to manage all data mappings between an activity and a data is the data mapping properties dialog. It can be opened by double-clicking on a data mapping connection. It looks exactly like the data mapping panes in the activity properties dialog, except the data cannot be chosen.

Figure: Data Mapping Properties Dialog

• Setting Access Points
• Setting Access Point Paths
• Changing the Order of Data Mappings

Setting Access Points

Access points are named parameters to set or get values associated with a model element at runtime. Refer to section Access Points of chapter Workflow Data for details on the concept of using access points in Stardust.

Figure: Selecting an access point

Access Points can be used as values from events, e.g. the caught exception from an exception event:

Figure: Event Access Point Example

Setting Access Point Paths

Depending on the type of the access point an input or output access point path can be applied to it.

• An Input Access Point Path accepts exactly one Java object as a parameter. The execution semantics is provided by the underlying data type.
• An OutPut Access Point Path executes on the access point according to the semantics of the underlying data type.

Examples

The following screenshot shows an example usage for getting the label of a document version access point:

Figure: Document Version Label Access Point Path example

The following screenshot shows an example usage for executing a Java method on an access point:

Figure: Java Method Access Point Path example

Changing the Order of Data Mappings

All data mappings are executed in the order specified in the model. Data mappings may be reordered by selecting a data mapping in the data mapping properties pane in the properties dialog of the activity and clicking the Move Up or Move Down button.

Figure: Changing the order of data mappings

Deleting Data Mappings

A data mapping can be deleted by

• selecting it in the diagram view and choosing Delete from the pop-up menu. To delete only the symbol, choose Delete Symbol or
• by selecting it in the data mapping properties pane of the activity's properties dialog and pressing the Delete button.

Data Mappings in Process Interface Context

The process interface data mapping is required when one model is referring to another model. Suppose the referred subprocess has IN parameters defined and it returns the result. In this case, the called process should know the IN and OUT parameters. So if the referred process has exposed the parameters then you need to provide the data mappings in the process interface context.

Note that the data type specified in the formal parameters should match with the data type specified in the consumer model. For example, you have defined structure data type in the provider model. To access the same structured data in the consumer model, you need to drag and drop the structured data and reference through the data mappings. For more information on how to drag and drop referenced elements, please refer to the section Dragging and Dropping the Referenced Elements of the External Model Resources chapter. For more information, you can also refer to the chapter Outline View .

Open the Property page of the referred subprocess activity in the consumer model and click on In Data Mappings

Figure: In Data Mapping

Select the processInterface context and click the Add button.

Figure: In Data Mapping - Process Interface Context

Specify the parameters and click on Apply.

Figure: Process Interface Context - Parameters

Similarly, you can provide the out data mappings.