An object property definition defines a single piece of data and its type. A property can also define minimum and maximum values, a default, or “special value” and other data-related behaviors.
The properties of an object define the aspects of the business entity the object is intended to encapsulate. Each object must include a key property that will uniquely identify each instance of the object at run time. The object key property is important to all aspects of object data synchronization. Both the Agentry Client and the Agentry Server use this value to determine if an object is added to a collection, or if it should be replaced. On the Agentry Client, a new object cannot be added to a collection using an add transaction if the instance it creates has the same key property value as an existing object instance.
The key property is specified in the object definition itself in the Key Property attribute. The property to be used as the key property must be defined first.
The attribute Name is an important one to consider when defining the properties of an object. In addition to uniquely identifying the property definition within the parent object, it also plays a part in the downstream synchronization of objects at run time.
When a step definition returns data for an object, the values returned will be identified in some manner depending on the type of step. For a SQL step this is the column name designated in the SELECT portion of the step’s query. In a Java step, it is the name of the members of the returnData structure. HTTP-XML and File steps use different mechanisms involving mapping behaviors. Regardless of the step type, the name used by the step to identify a value must match the name of the property definition. The Agentry Server will populate a property with the value in the data returned by the step with the same name or identifier as that property definition’s Name.
Properties are defined to be of a certain data type, of which there are many in Agentry. They are a child definition to the object, transaction, and fetch definitions. Each property data type has its own set of attributes specific to that type. Review the information on property data types for more detailed information on properties.