Business Object Editor 

Definition

An editor, launched from the context menu of a business object, that displays the business object properties and enables the creation and editing of business object operations.

Use

The Business Object Editor is accessed by right-clicking one of the business objects in the Business Object folder, and selecting Open ® Object from the context menu.

The creation of operations associated with business objects is a key element of object-based navigation. It is the operation that defines the connection to implementing iViews that return data related to the business objects to portal users.

The dynamics of the business environment often demand changes in user roles, role definitions, and business content itself. These conditions call for the ability to adapt and to make navigational changes as needed. The ability of object-based navigation to modify the priorities of business object operations and manipulating the iViews through which they navigate, contributes to meeting these demands.

Structure

The Business Object Editor consists of two tabular sections, one concerned solely with operations and the other with the implementing iViews/Pages of the operations. To the right of the Business Object Editor, the standard portal Property Editor is displayed.

The Property Editor

Opening the Business Object Editor displays automatically the Property Editor for the specific business object. For a business object, the only editable properties are Business Object name, being the name shown to the portal user, and the Distributed Query Engine (DQE) name, a technical name required by the portal infrastructure.

Adding Operations

The table in the upper part of the Business Object Editor contains the following four fields:

Business Object Operations

Selection Column	Radio button for selecting business object operations (appears only after at least one operation has been defined for the business object)
Operation Name	Name of the business object operation – best if the name is descriptive
Operaton ID	Unique ID of the business object operation
Priority	Priority of the business object operation The value entered in the Priority field must be of type integer. The greater the integer value, the higher the priority of the operation. There is no upper limitation for the value. For a more detailed description of the importance of the operation priority, see the Object-Based Navigation introduction.
Relation Resolving	Drop-down selection for boolean Yes/No for choosing whether or not the iView that implements this operation will use relation resolving between the source business object and its main object. It will look for a designated (custom) relation between the source and target objects at runtime. If set to Yes, runtime checks to see if a designated relation exists. If there is no such relation, the default relation between the two business objects is used. This may be an existing foreign key or manual relation, or an automatic relation. Designated relations between business objects are defined using the Single Relation Editor, which can be accessed from the Object-Based Navigation Editor.

Below the operations table are three related buttons:

Add	Choosing the Add button highlights a row in the operation table above for entering the basic properties of a new business object operation, and activates the relation resolving drop-down list.
Remove	Deletes the selected operation.
Display iViews/Pages	Displays all the iViews or pages that implement the selected operation in the Implementing iViews/Pages part of the Business Object Editor.

Implementing iViews/Pages

After choosing the Display iViews/Pages button, this table displays all iViews associated with the selected business object operation, whether they appear in navigation (in the Portal Content Catalog) or exist in some role and are invisible to navigation.

The Implementing iViews/Pages part of the Business Object Editor contains the following three fields:

iView / Page	Name of the iView or page that can implement the operation selected in the operation table An icon appears together with the name indicating whether the listing is an iView or a Page (landscape format for an iView, portrait format for a Page). The iViews or pages are added from the Portal Content Catalog. When an operation is selected, right-clicking an iView displays in its context menu the option context Add Operation to iView.
Location	The Portal Content Directory (PCD) path to the iView or Page
In Navigation	Indicates by Yes/No if the iView or Page in an active navigation object.

Below the Implementing iViews/Pages table are two related buttons:

Selection Column	Radio button for selecting implementing iView or page
Edit	Selecting an iView and choosing Edit opens the Property Editor of the selected iView. By opening the Object-Based Navigation Editor from the Edit drop-down list, it is possible to edit the operation’s priority from the context of the  iView. For more information, see Object-Based Navigation Editor.
Remove	Removes the selected iView or page.

Saving Changes

Choose the Save button at the top of the editor after adding operations to the business object, adding iViews to the operation, or making any changes to existing properties.

Additions to the Implementing iViews / Pages Table from a Role

Adding an iView from a role must be done from the Role Editor for the specific role, and by opening the editor in the Object-Based Navigation Editor for the specific iView.

Once the Object-Based Navigation Editor is open, right-click the relevant operation in the Business Objects folder of the Portal Content Catalog, and from the operation context menu, choose Add to iView. Although the association of operation to iView is accomplished from the iView side, the result is the same.