Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel eBusiness Application Integration Volume II > About Integration Objects > Structure of Siebel Integration Objects >

Multi-Value Groups


Multi-value groups (MVGs) are used within Siebel business components to represent database multivalued attributes. MVGs can be one of two types: regular MVGs or MVG Associations.

An integration object instance most often has multiple integration component instances. For example, an Account can have multiple Business Addresses but only one of these addresses is marked as the primary address. A business requirement may require that only the integration component instance that corresponds to the primary MVG be part of the integration object instance. In relation to Account and Business Addresses this means that only the primary address should be part of the Account integration object instance. The primary address can be obtained by one of the following steps:

In Siebel Tools, if a Siebel business component contains an MVG, the MVG is represented in several screens as illustrated in the following sections.

Screen 1: Fields View

For example, as illustrated in Figure 6, the Account business component contains a multi-value group field, the Address Id.

Figure 6.  Address Id MVG Field in the Account Business Component

Click for full size image

Screen 2: Multi-Value Links

As shown in Figure 7, the multi-value link property has the value Business Address. If you navigate to the Multi Value Link screen, you see that the Business Address multi-value link has the value Business Address as its Destination Business Component.

Figure 7.  Destination Business Component

Click for full size image

Screen 3: Fields View

As shown in Figure 8, the Business Address multi-value link has Business Address as its Destination Business Component. This means that there is another business component named Business Address that contains the fields that are collectively represented by Address Id in the Account business component.

Figure 8.  Business Address Business Component

Click for full size image

Graphical Representation

Figure 9 shows a graphical way to represent the relationship between Account business component and the Business Address multi-value link.

Figure 9.  Address Id Field and Business Address MVG

Click for full size image

The more table-like representation above shows how the Business Address multi-value link connects the two business components. The child points to the Business Address business component, which contains the multiple fields that make up the MVG.

NOTE:  Two business components are used to represent an MVG.

Creating an Integration Component

To create a Siebel integration component to represent an MVG, it is necessary also to create two integration components:

Figure 10 shows an integration component based on an MVG and its user property value in Siebel Tools.

Figure 10.  Integration Component Based on MVG Business Component

Click for full size image

The EAI Siebel Adapter needs to know the names of the MVG fields as they are defined in the parent business component—in this example, Account—and also the names of the MVG fields as they are known in the business component that represents the MVG—in this example, Account Business Address. As shown in Figure 11, the integration component fields represent the MVG.

Figure 11.  Integration Component Fields Representing MVG

Click for full size image

To represent both names, each field is assigned an integration component field user property that contains the entry MVGFieldName or AssocFieldName if the user property is MVGAssoc. Its value is the name of the field shown in the parent business component—in this example, Business Address.


 Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel eBusiness Application Integration Volume II 
 Published: 18 July 2003