Bookshelf v7.8: Purging the VBC Cache

Purge the VBC cache by configuring a button to invoke method RefreshVBCCache. Table 11 lists the consequences if Enable Caching is set to Yes or No.

Table 11. Consequences of Setting Enable Caching
If...	Then...
Enable Caching is set to Y.	The VBC purges cached values and forces a query of the external system.
Enable Caching is set to N.	The RefreshVBCCache method has no effect.

Business Service Configuration

Base the business services specified in the Service Name parameter of the VBC on the CSSFAExternalService class, and have a method named query defined. You do not need to specify any input arguments to this method or configure any user properties. In this way, you can reuse this business service.

Integration Object Configuration

Use the integration object specified as the Outgoing Integration Object Name user property of the VBC to communicate record data between the business service and the workflow process. This integration object is non standard because it does not need to have an integration component for all the parent business components in the business object hierarchy. For example, if your business object hierarchy consists of Contact and the VBC as a child of Contact, you do not need to include a Contact integration component as the parent integration component in your integration object.

The reason for this is that this integration object is never used by the EAI Siebel Adapter. Therefore, you do not need to include the complete business component hierarchy in the integration object.

The integration object uses the PREDEFAULT user property (Table 12) on integration component fields to identify those fields that should be prefilled with data from the active business components:

Table 12. PREDEFAULT User Property
Integration Component Field User Property	Valid Values	Description
PREDEFAULT	[Business Component Name.Field Name] For example, [Contact.Primary Personal Postal Code]	Identifies the source business component field that the Business Services uses to prefill the integration component field.

After the workflow process completes, values in the integration component fields that have matching names in the VBC are copied back to the VBC. If the integration object has fields that do not match the VBC, then those fields are ignored and no error is produced.

Workflow Configuration

The workflow process specified as the ProcessName user property of the VBC is used to identify which workflow process the business service should invoke after instantiating the named integration object. Table 13 lists the two process properties that must be configured for this process to communicate with the business service.

Table 13. Workflow Process Properties
Process Property Name	Type	Description
SiebelMessage	Integration Object	The input of the workflow process. This is passed in by the business service. Contains the integration object instance of the integration object identified with the Outgoing Integration Object Name user property on the VBC. This integration object instance contains data for integration component fields that have the PREDEFAULT user property set as described in the Integration Object Configuration section of this document.
VBC Output	Hierarchy	The output from the workflow process. This is returned to the business service. Contains the integration object instance of the result of querying the external system that is to be returned to the business service for inserting into the VBC.

The SiebelMessage process property contains the query parameter for the external system. The workflow process transforms this data to a format understood by the external system, then uses a transport to send the request and receive the response from the business service. Finally, it must transform the response data back to a format that matches the VBC fields. This transformed response data needs to be stored in the VBC Output process property so that the calling business service can map it back to the VBC.