Configuring Siebel eBusiness Applications > Configuring Links >

How a Cascade Copy with a Multi-Value Link Is Constructed

It is often desirable to be able to configure a business component to support the copying of its detail records when one of its records is copied. You implement this with a feature called cascade copy. For example, when you make a copy of an opportunity record to create a similar opportunity, you may always want the list of contacts for that opportunity copied with it.

To implement the cascade copy feature for a business component, you create a Multi Value Link child object definition and specify the following properties:

• Destination Link. The name of the link in which the master-detail relationship is specified.
• Destination Business Component. The name of the detail business component.
• No Copy. This must be set to FALSE and #Field ID should be set to No Copy = FALSE. If the No Copy property is set to TRUE, cascade copying is disabled. However, an exception to this occurs when the corresponding field is defined as the Destination field in a link. In this case, the link automatically populates the field and ignores the value of the No Copy property.

A multi-value link used in the implementation of a multi-value field automatically copies the detail records (unless disabled with No Copy) because it is assumed that a multi-value group travels with its parent record. For example, you would normally want the account addresses, sales team, and industry list for an account to copy with that account.

This capability is used for a different purpose when cascade copy is implemented for a multi-value link not used in a multi-value field. The multi-value link does not need to be attached to a field in the business component, or used in a multi-value group. It just needs to be created as a child object definition of the master business component, configured to point to the detail business component and link, and set with copying enabled (a No Copy value of FALSE).

Cascade copy can be implemented for a many-to-many relationship, that is, where the destination link has a nonblank Inter Table property value. In this circumstance, new intersection table rows are created rather than new detail business component records. New associations are created rather than new records. These associations are between the new master and the existing detail records.

NOTE:  Cascade copy has the potential to violate the requirement of uniqueness of values in indexes. For this reason, if copying the detail records would cause any unique index violations, the copy operation is cancelled.