Create new business objects (complex data types) manually. When creating your business objects you define the hierarchical relationship between modules and business objects, and the attributes used in the business object.

1. On the Application Home tab, click Business Types.
   
   Description of the illustration bus-type-page.png
2. Click New Business Type , then select New Business Object to manually create a business object.
3. In the Create Business Object dialog box, enter a name for the business object or use the default name, select or add a parent module, and then:
   • Click Finish to create your new business object.
   • Click Next to add attributes.
   
   Description of the illustration bus-obj-dialog.png
4. Click Add Attribute to add attributes. Enter a name, click Change Type to change the data type from the default value String, click Add. Click Finish after you add all your attributes.
   
   Description of the illustration attribute-dialog.png

You can import business objects (complex data types) that are based on an XML Schema (XSD) file. During the process you define the hierarchical relationship between modules and business objects.

1. On the Application Home tab, click Business Types.
2. Click New Business Type , select Import Business Object, and then select From XML Schema.
3. In the Import Business Object from XML Schema dialog box, enter a name for the business object (or use the default), select or add a parent module, and select an element or type defined in a schema file, or click Import Schemas from File to import an XSD or ZIP file. You can then highlight the required element or type from the list of elements and types.

   Note:

   Primitive types as top level elements is not supported.
4. Click Import to create a business object based on an XSD file.

You can import business objects (complex data types) that are based on a JSON instance or schema. During the process you define the hierarchical relationship between modules and business objects.

1. On the Application Home tab, click Business Types.
2. On the Business Types page, click Create , select Import Business Object, then From JSON.
3. In the Import Business Object from JSON dialog box, enter a name and JSON for the business object, or click Import from File to import a JSON file and the definitions contained within it.
4. Click Next to analyze and generate the JSON schema or instance, then make changes to it as needed. (Note that generation makes best guesses based on JSON contents.)
5. Click Import to create a business object based on the JSON instance or schema.

   The following are the limitations while creating business objects using JSON schemas:

   • Imported JSON Schemas can contain references only to the definitions contained within it. External references aren't allowed.

   • Only one file or JSON schema is accepted at a time.

   • The use of required in the JSON schema doesn't impact the Not Null property of the resulting business object.

   • Imported JSON cannot have fields that are not NCName compliant, for example, they cannot contain special characters like @ $ % & / + , ; , whitespace characters, or different parenthesis. Furthermore a JSON field cannot begin with a number, a dot, or a minus character although they can appear later in the field.

   • Process doesn’t currently support JSON natively. The JSON schema is converted to an XML Schema before generating the business object.

     Note:

     Because JSON isn’t supported natively, the conversion to XML Schema must be valid. The field names (which are translated to XML Schema element names) must be compliant with XML Schema. For example, you can’t use names like some:name because the colon conflicts with the namespace prefix declaration.

   When converting a JSON schema to an XML schema, the following conventions are used:

   • All valid JSON schema blocks must define either a type, enum, or $ref keywords. JSON schema blocks not identified as type, enum or $ref are ignored.

   • The root JSON schema block can only be object type, or an enum block.

   • Only root definitions are taken into account.

   • Local definitions must be referenced by #/definitions/<local_name>.

   • Keywords allOf, anyOf, oneOf in the JSON schema map to xs:anyType in the resulting XML schema.

   • The not keyword isn't supported.

The following is an example of a JSON schema:

{
    "id": "http://some.site.somewhere/entry-schema#",
    "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-04/schema#",
    "description": "schema for an fstab entry",
    "type": "object",
    "required": [ "storage" ],
    "properties": {
        "storage": {
            "type": "object",
            "oneOf": [
                { "$ref": "#/definitions/diskDevice" },
                { "$ref": "#/definitions/diskUUID" },
                { "$ref": "#/definitions/nfs" },
                { "$ref": "#/definitions/tmpfs" }
            ]
        },
        "fstype": {
            "enum": [ "ext3", "ext4", "btrfs" ]
        },
        "options": {
            "type": "array",
            "minItems": 1,
            "items": { "type": "string" },
            "uniqueItems": true
        },
        "readonly": { "type": "boolean" }
    },
    "definitions": {
        "diskDevice": {
            "properties": {
                "type": { "enum": [ "disk" ] },
                "device": {
                    "type": "string",
                    "pattern": "^/dev/[^/]+(/[^/]+)*$"
                }
            },
            "required": [ "type", "device" ],
            "additionalProperties": false
        },
        "diskUUID": {
            "properties": {
                "type": { "enum": [ "disk" ] },
                "label": {
                    "type": "string",
                    "pattern": "^[a-fA-F0-9]{8}-[a-fA-F0-9]{4}-[a-fA-F0-9]{4}-[a-fA-F0-9]{4}-[a-fA-F0-9]{12}$"
                }
            },
            "required": [ "type", "label" ],
            "additionalProperties": false
        },
        "nfs": {
            "properties": {
                "type": { "enum": [ "nfs" ] },
                "remotePath": {
                    "type": "string",
                    "pattern": "^(/[^/]+)+$"
                },
                "server": {
                    "type": "string",
                    "oneOf": [
                        { "format": "host-name" },
                        { "format": "ipv4" },
                        { "format": "ipv6" }
                    ]
                }
            },
            "required": [ "type", "server", "remotePath" ],
            "additionalProperties": false
        },
        "tmpfs": {
            "properties": {
                "type": { "enum": [ "tmpfs" ] },
                "sizeInMB": {
                    "type": "integer",
                    "minimum": 16,
                    "maximum": 512
                }
            },
            "required": [ "type", "sizeInMB" ],
            "additionalProperties": false
        }
    }
}

The resulting business object in Process appears as follows:

Description of the illustration bo.png

Import and store XML Schema (XSD) files, and then use its complex types or elements to create business objects. You can also update the root XSD and all its dependencies.

1. On the Application Home tab, click Business Types.
2. On the Business Types page, click the Schema Files option, and then click Import Schema Files .
3. In the Upload Schema File dialog box, select one of the following, and then click Validate.
   • Upload from file: Click Browse to browse for a XSD or ZIP file.
   • Use URL: Provide the URL for your XSD or Zip file.
   A summary of the files to be added are shown if the validation is successful.

   Note:

   If validation is unsuccessful, the validation errors or warnings are displayed. Validation warnings occur if some of the files that you want to upload override exiting ones. In this case, you can upload and override existing files. Whenever an unexpected error occurs, the error is logged in the server log and the upload is cancelled. You can’t import files that fail validation.
4. Optionally, click Update to update the root XSD and all its dependencies.
5. Click Upload to import your XSD file.

Process lets you upload and validate new versions of existing XML schema (XSD) files.

1. On the Application Home tab, click Business Types.
2. Click Schema Files.
3. Click the name of the schema file to open it.
4. Click Menu and select Upload New Version.
5. In the Upload New Version dialog box, select one of the following options:

   • Upload from file: Click Browse to browse for your XSD file.

   • Use URL: Provide the URL for your XSD file.

6. Click Validate.

   A summary of the files to be added are shown if the validation is successful.

   Note:

   If validation is unsuccessful, then validation errors or warnings are displayed. Validation warnings occur if some of the files that you want to upload override exiting ones. In this case, you can upload and override existing files. Whenever an unexpected error occurs, the error is logged in the server log and the upload is cancelled. You can’t upload files that fail validation.
7. Click Upload to update your XSD file.

   In certain business cases, the XSD you're trying to upload may contain changes that are incompatible with the current XSD. An incompatible XSD can include changes like:

   • some elements or types have been removed
   • some attributes in complex type have been updated to new type
   • some attributes in complex type have been removed

   While uploading an XSD with incompatible changes, you get warning messages in the Upload New Version dialog box to indicate the impact of the changes. For example, you may be notified that some business objects in the application were deleted or modified to support the incompatible changes.

You can quickly create business objects (complex data types) that are based on specific XML Schema (XSD) types or elements by using the Promote feature available in the Schema Files — Details view.

1. On the Application Home tab, click Business Types.
2. Click Schema Files to switch to the Schema Files view, which lists all schema files in the application.
   
   Description of the illustration schema-files-option.png
   
3. Click the name of the required schema file to view its details.
   
   Description of the illustration schema-subview.png
   

   This view shows the details of the schema file including:

   • User-defined business types

   • Auto-generated business types

   • Types and Elements with no business object defined

   You can create business objects based on the types and elements that aren’t already used for other business objects, as well as on the auto-generated business types because they’re not explicitly created by the user.

4. Click Promote for the type or element you want to base your new business object.
   The Promote to Business Object dialog box opens.
   
   Description of the illustration promote-bus-obj.png
   
5. Enter a name for the new business object.
   The field is populated with the name of the selected business type or element, such as BusinessAddressType. You can use this name or change it.
6. Select a parent module from the drop-down list or click New to create a new module and then click OK to create your business object.

After you create a business object, click its name to go to the Business Types — Data Structure page. From this page, you can add or change the type of a business object’s attributes or add documentation. You can also add modules, business objects, business exceptions, Enum objects and Enum items, and import business objects to the data structure.

The business types and related items you can add are based on what you have highlighted in the hierarchy.

When you highlight a business type or related item in the hierarchy, its details appear in the pane on the right. You can edit the details or add documentation. For imported business objects, the type behind the business object and the file where that type is defined is also displayed.

Description of the illustration manage-bus-types.png

Right-click a business type or related item in the hierarchy to delete it, move it, or collapse a section of the hierarchy.

Think before you delete. You can’t recover a business object, module, or attribute that has been deleted. When you delete a business object or module that contains other related items, they’re also deleted. However, if the deleted business object or module contains an attribute based on a business object, that business object isn’t deleted.

You can create a data object based on a simple data object type or on a business object (complex data type). If you’re creating a data object on a business object, you must create the business object first.

1. On the Application Home tab, select a process, and then click Data Objects.
2. In the Data Objects dialog box, click Add.
3. Enter a name for your data object or use the default name, select a simple data object type or a data object based on a business object, click Create, then click Close.

You can edit or delete data objects.

1. Go to the Application Home tab and make sure you’re in Edit mode if you’re editing a shared application.
2. Open the business process where you want to edit or delete a data object.
3. Click Data Objects and expand the list of data objects for your business process.
4. Select the specific data object.
   This step activates the Edit and Delete icons.

   
   Description of the illustration data-object-dialog.png
   • To edit the data object, click Edit, then change the name or data type as necessary.
   • To delete the data object, click Delete.
5. Click Close.