IBM FileNet P8, Version 5.2.1            

Custom Objects

A custom object is a general-purpose object that is represented by a CustomObject object that can be subclassed, is independently securable, and can be persisted to the object store.

The CustomObject class provides a minimal set of properties and exists primarily as a simple, customizable class that you can subclass and to which you can add custom properties. Unlike a Document object, a CustomObject object does not carry content, is not versionable, and does not support lifecycle functionality. In cases in which you need an object only to carry properties and do not need it to carry content or be versionable, a CustomObject object is preferable to a Document object without content because it has fewer properties and uses fewer resources.

A custom object has the following characteristics:

Tip: If you do not need the containable behavior of CustomObject instances or the ability to full-text index them, consider by using a CmAbstractPersistable custom root class instead. Performance and scalability for custom root class instances can be superior to that of CustomObject instances. See Custom Root Classes.

For code examples that demonstrate how to create and use custom objects, see Working with CustomObject Objects.

Name Property

To increase its flexibility, the CustomObject class (unlike most classes) does not provide a specific system property that is designated as its name property. Therefore, unless you add a custom name property to the CustomObject class (or one of its subclasses), the value of a CustomObject object's Name property defaults to the value of its Id property.

To create a custom name property for the CustomObject class or one of its subclasses, follow these steps:

  1. Add a custom string-valued property to the class definition that defines the particular custom object class.
  2. Set the IsNameProperty property of the custom property's property definition (PropertyDefinitionString object) to true.

After you instantiate a new CustomObject object and set the value of its custom name property, the CustomObject object's Name property will be automatically populated with the value of the custom name property instead of the Id property.



Last updated: October 2015
customobject_concepts.htm

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