Exposing Business Object Data in the GP Context 

 

Business objects (BO) are real world entities modeled as objects in an SAP information system. They encapsulate data structures, as well as the functions applied to the data, but hide their full complexity from other objects. Client programs access business objects by reading their attributes, or by calling the methods that make up the object’s interface.

You can use the GP API to wrap up business objects and include them in the Guided Procedures (GP) process flow. This is possible when you create a callable object and insert as a parameter a reference to the data structure representing the business object data.

You must perform the following steps:

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       1.      Model the BO structure with the tools of the GP API.

You should specify the type definition and parameter structure of the template that is going to wrap the business object resource.

       2.      Define a restriction based on the type definition.

The restriction defines which structures and attributes need to be retrieved from the business object and used by GP.

       3.      Wrap the resource in a template recognizable by GP, based on the type definition and the restriction created previously.

You create a detail and an overview of the template.

       4.      Implement a reader for the template to be able to access it.

       5.      Create and register a business object provider that is responsible for providing metadata for business object types, system endpoints, and so on.

       6.      Create an aspect (instance) or enumeration of the BO development object template.

       7.      Unregister the provider after the application has been stopped.

 

The figure below illustrates the usage of the design time interfaces for each step of the procedure:

For an exemplary implementation, refer to Constructing a KM Document Template and Provider.