ReturnProblemRecords collaboration template

The ReturnProblemRecords collaboration template is used to find data objects that represent records of reported problems.

ReturnProblemRecords uses the Generic ProblemRecordSearchCriteria business object to contain an array of Generic ProblemRecord Business Objects. The first element of ProblemRecordSearchCriteria is used as search criteria. ProblemRecordSearchCriteria is sent to the destination application to find and retrieve full-valued ProblemRecords by content. If the criteria is null, all ProblemRecords are received.

ReturnProblemRecords does not involve any creation, updates or deletion of ProblemRecords. If a ProblemRecord needs to be created, updated or deleted, the ProblemRecord collaboration template supports these processes.

This collaboration template uses the ProcessContext attribute of generic business objects to maintain process information between two or more collaboration objects. In order to maintain this information, the collaboration object performs the following actions, starting from when it receives a triggering business object:

Collaboration object setup

This section includes information on port bindings and required steps for setting up collaboration objects based on this collaboration template. For information on standard features, ports, and configuration properties for collaboration templates, and for general information on creating collaboration objects refer to the documents listed in Required documents for creating collaboration objects.

Port information

The following diagram illustrates ReturnProblemRecords's ports:

ReturnProblemRecords collaboration's ports

Note: To keep the collaboration object from using a port, bind that port to the Port connector. Doing so indicates that the port is unused without causing the collaboration object to provide additional functionality.

Port name: From
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
ProblemRecord
SearchCriteria
WebSphere MQ Workflow Receives the triggering business object. At the end of a synchronous call, this port also returns the triggering business object to the source application when the collaboration object ends successfully. RetrieveByContent

Port name: DestinationAppRetrieve
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
ProblemRecord
SearchCriteria
Problem record management system Sends a reference-valued business object to retrieve the full-valued business object. The result determines which verb to use when synchronizing the ProblemRecord. RetrieveByContent

Port name: Return
Business object Bound to Function Verbs used
ProblemRecord
SearchCriteria
WebSphere MQ Workflow Returns the result of the collaboration object's processing to an application before the collaboration object ends its process. This is typically used with a WebSphere MQ Workflow connector to return the result of the business process to the WebSphere MQ Workflow activity.

Note:
Since this port is closely related to USE_RETURN property, see the USE_RETURN property.
Update

Setting up the collaboration object

To set up ReturnProblemRecords as a stand-alone collaboration object, complete the following steps:

  1. Create the ReturnProblemRecords collaboration object.
  2. Bind the ports as described in Port information.
  3. Set the configuration properties for ReturnProblemRecords.

Collaboration template processes

This section illustrates the following business processes for this collaboration template:

Overall process logic

This section illustrates this collaboration template's process logic for its supported verb indicated below, as well as additional process logic that will be executed if the USE_RETURN configuration property is set to true:

ReturnProblemRecords

The following diagram illustrates this collaboration template's ReturnProblemRecords process logic.

ReturnProblemRecords RetrieveByContent process logic

USE_RETURN

The following diagram shows the additional process logic that is executed when the collaboration object's USE_RETURN configuration property is set to true.

ProblemRecordManager USE_RETURN process logic

Standard business processes

This collaboration inherits the Email process for error handling business process from the CollaborationFoundation template.

Configuration properties

This section describes the following properties for this collaboration template:

Standard properties

This collaboration template uses the following standard configuration properties:

Properties specific to this collaboration template

The following properties are specific to this collaboration template:

EXCEPTION_WHEN_BO_NOT_FOUND_ON_RETRIEVE

This property specifies how to handle an exception raised by the destination application when no records are found that match the search criteria.

EXCEPTION_WHEN_BO_NOT_FOUND_ON_RETRIEVE  configuration property
Possible values Usage
true Handles the exception as an error, and causes this collaboration object to fail and to raise an exception.
false (default value) Handles the exception as a zero result, and causes this collaboration object to finish successfully and to return an empty list.

USE_RETURN

This property specifies whether to return the processed business object through the Return port.

This property is required to handle cases where the user expects the process to return an output that is of a different type than the input. For example, the result of an asynchronous process may return an output that is different from the input that triggered the asynchronous process.

Note: Exceptions from USE_RETURN process are not handled as INFORMATIONAL_EXCEPTIONS, because the result is not considered to be informational.

USE_RETURN configuration property
Possible values Usage
true (default value) Causes this collaboration object to return the processed business object through the Return port after the completion of  processing. This is typically used when this collaboration object is called to return the result from the preceding asynchronous request. In this case, the Return port is typically bound to the same application as the one that is bound to the From port.
false Causes this collaboration object not to return through the Return port. In this case, the Return port is bound to the Port connector.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2002, 2003