Checklist: Making Correct Use of Correlations

Check your correlations for the following:

Correlations Using Payload Fields:Check that the fields that you have defined by using a correlation are available in the payload of the messages involved.

Uniqueness: Ensure that you have defined all correlations uniquely. If, for example, multiple factories use the same material number, a correlation that uses the material number alone is not sufficient to uniquely determine all the messages that belong together. In this case, you need to define the correlation by using the material number and the factory.

Validity: Ensure that you have defined the validity of correlations correctly. For each correlation, check whether it can be defined as a local correlation.

A local correlation is only valid for the block for which it is defined. Once the block has been processed, the correlation is no longer active.

If the validity of a correlation is notrestricted correctly, the following problems can occur:

• Messages that fulfill an activated correlation continue to be assigned to an active integration process. However, the integration process no longer processes the messages because no processing steps wait for the message any more.
• Messages that fulfill an activated correlation continue to be assigned to an active integration process instead of starting a new integration process.

You can avoid these problems and make it easier for others to follow how messages are processed by correctly restricting a correlation to the required block.