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Using the Business Service Source Type to Populate Variables

The Business Service source type allows you to invoke a business service to populate:

• One or more variables as described in Invoking a Business Service to Populate Variables.
• A child property set of the current row as described in Invoking a Business Service to Populate a Child Property Set.

Invoking a Business Service to Populate Variables

Use the following procedure to invoke a business service to populate variables.

To invoke a business service to populate variables

1. In the Variable Sources list applet, set the following fields:

   Field	Value
   Source Type	"Business Service"
   Path	[BusSvcName]/[BusSvcMethod]

2. In the Variable Source Parameters list applet:
   1. Add variable source parameters for each input argument. The variable source parameters can be a literal string or another variable value.
   2. Add variable source parameters for each output argument, and specify which variable to populate.

Invoking a Business Service to Populate a Child Property Set

Use the following procedure to invoke a business service to populate a child property set of the current row.

To invoke a business service to populate a child property set of the current row

1. In the Variable Definitions list applet, set Type (the variable type) to Property Set.
2. In the Variable Sources list applet, set the following fields:

   Field	Value
   Source Type	"Business Service"
   Path	[BusSvcName]/[BusSvcMethod]

3. In the Variable Source Parameters list applet:
   1. Add variable source parameters for each input argument. The variable source parameters can be a literal string or another variable value.
   2. Add variable source parameters for each output argument and specify which variable to populate.

Using a Single Invocation to Populate Multiple Variables or Child Variable Maps

Use the following procedure to populate multiple variables or child variable maps using a single invocation.

To populate multiple variables or child variable maps in a single method invocation

• Specify the Source and all the In or Out parameters under a single variable.

  It is recommended that other variables have only a definition, no source. This reduces the burden on the Context Service because a separate call to the business service will be issued if there is a second variable having the same business service source.

  NOTE:  A best practice is to compare the source and source parameters from different variables to determine whether to consolidate. If the values of all these variables can be obtained through a single call to the business service, combine them and only specify the business service or method as a source under one variable. Otherwise, the same call will be issued multiple times, giving the same result each time.