WebSphere Business Integration Adapters: An Adapter Development and WebSphere Business Integration Solution

66 WebSphere Business Integration Adapters

Outcome status for RetrieveByContent processing

The RetrieveByContent operation should return one of the outcome status

values as shown in Table 6-5.

Table 6-5 Possible outcome status for the RetrieveByContent operation

6.6 Handling the Update verb

When the business object handler obtains an Update verb from the request

business object, it must ensure that an existing application entity, whose type is

indicated by the business object definition, is updated as follows:

 For a flat business object, the Update verb indicates that the data in the

specified entity must be modified as necessary until the application entity

exactly matches the request business object.

 For a hierarchical business object, the Update verb indicates that updates to

the application entity must be made to match the entire business object

RetrieveByContent condition Outcome status

If the RetrieveByContent operation finds a single entity that matches

the query, it returns a “Value Changed” outcome status.

VALCHANGE

If the IgnoreMissingChildObject is True, the RetrieveByContent

operation returns the “Value Changed” outcome status for the

business object if it is successful in retrieving the top-level object,

regardless of whether it is successful in retrieving its children.

VALCHANGE

If the RetrieveByContent operation finds multiple entries that match

the query, it:

 Retrieves only the first occurrence of the match; this business

object is returned to the Adapter Framework through the

request business object parameter.

 Fills a return-status descriptor with further information about the

search.

 Returns a status of “Multiple Hits” to notify the Adapter

Framework that there are additional records that match the

specification.

MULTIPLE_HITS

If the RetrieveByContent operation does not find matches for

retrieve by non-key values, it:

 Fills a return-status descriptor containing additional information

about the cause of the RetrieveByContent error.

 Returns a “RetrieveByContent Failed” outcome status.

RETRIEVEBYCONTENT_FAILED

Chapter 6. Business object handlers 67

hierarchy. To do this, the connector might need to create, update, and delete

application entities as follows:

– If child entities exist in the application, they are modified as needed.

– Any child business objects contained in the hierarchical business object

that do not have corresponding entities in the application are added to the

application.

– Any child entities that exist in the application but that are not contained in

the business object are deleted from the application.

Standard processing for the Update verb

The following steps outline the standard processing for an Update verb:

1. Creates a new business object of the same type as the request business

object. This new business object is the response business object, which will

hold the retrieved copy of the request business object.

2. Retrieves a copy of the request business object from the application.

Recursively retrieves the data for the entire entity from the application using

the primary keys from the request business object:

– For a flat business object, retrieves the single application entity.

– For a hierarchical business object, uses the Retrieve operation to descend

into the application business object, expanding all paths in the business

object hierarchy.

3. Places the retrieved data in the response business object. This response

business object is now a representation of the current state of the entity in the

application. The Update operation can now compare the two hierarchical

business objects and update the application entity appropriately.

4. Updates the simple attributes in the application entity to correspond to the

top-level source business object.

5. Compares the response business object (that were created in step 2) with the

request business object. Performs this comparison down to the lowest level of

the business object hierarchy. Recursively updates the children of the

top-level business object, following these rules:

– If a child business object is present in both the response business object

and the request business object, recursively updates the child by

performing the Update operation.

– If a child business object is present in the request business object, but not

in the response business object, recursively creates the child by

performing the Create operation.

– If a child business object is not present in the request business object, but

is present in the response business object, recursively deletes the child