The ContactSync collaboration synchronizes data about specific customer contacts between a source application and a destination application. This collaboration uses the generic Contact business object, which contains profile information about the people at each customer site who contact your organization. The synchronization of contact information allows separate applications to share information consistently whenever data is added, changed, or deleted in the enterprise. Although ContactSync synchronizes only Contacts, you can configure it to call the appropriate collaborations to verify or synchronize the following related business objects:
Business object | Related collaboration properties | Called collaborations |
---|---|---|
Customer | VERIFY_SYNC_CUSTOMERS | CustomerSync CustomerWrapper |
VERIFY_SYNC_CUSTOMERPARTNERS | CustomerPartnerWrapper CustomerPartnerSync |
This document describes how to create and configure the collaboration template and describes its business processes.
This section includes information on port bindings and required steps for setting up collaboration objects based on ContactSync. For information on standard features, ports, and configuration properties for collaboration templates, see the Collaboration Development Guide. For general information on creating collaboration objects, see the System Implementation Guide.
Figure 1 illustrates ContactSync's ports as they are displayed in System Manager. The tables that follow the figure provide information about each port.
Figure 1. ContactSync collaboration ports
Note: To prevent the collaboration object from using a port, bind that port to the Port connector. Binding the port indicates that the port is unused without causing the collaboration object to provide additional functionality.
Business object | Bound to | Function | Verbs used |
---|---|---|---|
Contact | The destination application's connector | Sends a reference-valued business object to retrieve the full-valued business object. The result determines the verb to use when synchronizing the Contact. |
Retrieve |
Business object | Bound to | Function | Verbs used |
---|---|---|---|
Contact | Source application's connector or calling collaboration. | 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 ends successfully. |
Create Retrieve Update Delete |
Business object | Bound to | Function | Verbs used |
---|---|---|---|
Contact | The destination application's connector |
Sends the triggering business object out of the collaboration. |
Create Update Delete |
Business object | Bound to | Function | Verbs used |
---|---|---|---|
Customer |
|
Sends a reference-valued Customer business object for verification or synchronization. |
Sync Exists |
Business object | Bound to | Function | Verbs used |
---|---|---|---|
CustomerPartner |
|
Sends a reference-valued CustomerPartner business object for verification or synchronization. |
Sync Exists |
To set up ContactSync as a stand-alone collaboration object, follow these steps:
To verify or synchronize related Customers and CustomerPartners as part of the ContactSync process, you can create any combination of the following collaboration-object groups:
Verify Synchronize Required collaborations Customers ContactSync, CustomerWrapper Customers ContactSync, CustomerWrapper, CustomerSync CustomerPartners ContactSync, CustomerPartnerWrapper CustomerPartners ContactSync, CustomerPartnerWrapper, CustomerPartnerSync
The following procedure describes setting up ContactSync as part of a collaboration-object group. In this example, the steps assume you want to synchronize Contacts and their referenced SoldTo Customers, but not their referenced CustomerPartners.
This section illustrates the process logic for this collaboration template:
Figure 2 illustrates ContactSync's process logic.
Figure 2. ContactSync collaboration process logic
NOTE: Some applications do not physically delete records. The source application may update the contact's status to inactive, rather than delete it. In this case, the collaboration receives a Contact business object with the Update verb. Refer to the connector documentation for information on how a specific application processes deletes.
This collaboration template uses the following standard collaboration business processes:
For information on these processes, see the Collaboration Development Guide.
Figure 3 illustrates ContactSync's process for verifying or synchronizing related Customers and CustomerPartners.
Note: Each Contact business object contains a ContactCustomer business object with single cardinality. If ContactCustomer's RoleName attribute evaluates to "Customer", ContactSync creates a Customer business object and sends it to CustomerWrapper. If RoleName evaluates to "CustomerPartner", ContactSync creates a CustomerPartner business object and sends it to CustomerPartnerWrapper.
Figure 3: Verification or synchronization of Customers and CustomerPartners
InterChange Server Express Plus rolls back a transaction when any step in a transactional collaboration fails. For example, when ContactSync is a member of a collaboration-object group that participates in a transactional collaboration, its actions are one subtransactional step of a larger transaction. If any step in the collaboration-object group's business process fails, the transactional collaboration details how InterChange Server Express Plus rolls back the processing of every collaboration in the group.
When a ContactSync collaboration object is used independently of other collaboration objects or the collaboration object's From port is bound to a source application rather than to another collaboration, its process comprises a single transactional step. In such a situation, it is not necessary to perform rollback.
To cause a collaboration object or a collaboration-object group to perform rollback requires modification of the collaboration template. For information about these processes, see the System Implementation Guide. For information about adding transaction processing to the collaboration template, see the Collaboration Development Guide.
To extend the collaboration object to handle transaction processing, complete the following steps:
This section describes the standard properties and collaboration template-specific properties for this collaboration template:
This collaboration template uses the following standard configuration properties for collaboration templates:
For information on these configuration properties, see the Collaboration Development Guide.
In addition to its standard configuration properties, this collaboration template has the configuration properties described below.
Property name and explanation | Possible values | Default value |
---|---|---|
VERIFY_SYNC_CUSTOMERS Set to "sync" to cause this collaboration to synchronize the related SoldTo Customer in the destination application. The collaboration performs the following process:
Set to "verify" to cause this collaboration to verify the related Customer in the destination application. The collaboration performs the following process:
Set to "neither" to cause this collaboration to synchronize its triggering business object without first synchronizing or verifying the related Customer in the destination application. VERIFY_SYNC_CUSTOMERPARTNERS |
verify, sync, neither | neither |
VERIFY_SYNC_CUSTOMERPARTNERS Set to "sync" to cause this collaboration to synchronize supporting customer information, such as BillTo and ShipTo data, that is stored in relationship to the SoldTo Customer. The collaboration performs the following process:
Set to "verify" to cause this collaboration to verify the related CustomerPartner in the destination application. The collaboration performs the following process:
Set to "neither" to cause this collaboration to synchronize its triggering business object without first synchronizing or verifying the related CustomerPartner in the destination application. |
sync, verify, neither |
neither |
To view an explanation of the messages of this collaboration template, launch the Log Viewer and open the collaboration template's message file. To launch the Log Viewer and open the collaboration template's message file:
To upgrade to a newer version of the collaboration template, perform the following steps: