| Oracle® Retail Active Retail Intelligence User Guide Release 15.0 E65706-01 |
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| Oracle® Retail Active Retail Intelligence User Guide Release 15.0 E65706-01 |
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The following sections describe the ARI windows and dialogs.
On the left side of the Metadata Maintenance form is a set of buttons for accessing the various views, or screens, for defining and maintaining metadata.
The Realm button displays the Realm Find view, from which you access the Realm Maintenance view for creating and editing realms.
The Parameter button displays the Parameter Find view, from which you access the Parameter Maintenance dialog for creating and editing parameters.
The Parameter Type button displays the Parameter Type Find screen, from which you access the Parameter Type Maintenance for creating and editing parameter types.
The Lookup Data button displays the Lookup Find view, from which you access the Lookup Data Edit screen for creating and editing lookups.
The Realm Find screen lists all of the active realms in your ARI system. This view is accessed by clicking the Realm button on the Metadata Maintenance form.
Information displayed about each realm includes:
Realm
The realm name. This field is read-only.
Type
The realm type. This field is read-only.
Instance
The instance ID for the realm. The instance allows you to create more than one version of a realm in case of different database instances of the same realm.
Schema@DB_Link
The concatenation of the database link and schema for the realm, as defined on the Realm Maintenance screen, and displayed in the format schema@db_link.
Sorting and Filtering
You can sort the realms by the categories of information by clicking the column heading above each column.You can filter the view or realms by filling in the fields above each column and clicking the Filter button. The Clear button clears any active filter.
The three buttons at the bottom of the list are for adding, deactivating, and editing realms.
The Realm Maintenance screen is for editing the definition of a realm. This screen is accessed through several actions:
Adding a realm by clicking the Realm button on the Realm Find screen.
Editing a realm by clicking the Edit button on the Realm Find screen.
Adding a realm by clicking the Add button next to the Realm Name field on the Parameter Maintenance screen.
Realm Maintenance has the following fields:
Physical Name
The physical name by which the realm is named in the database. The Physical Name field must be unique and cannot conflict with any active realms.
Realm Type
The source of the realm. A realm type is a set of properties common for all realms of a particular type. The list displays the possible realm types.
There are currently four built-in action types.
WINACT: Generic Windows action. This action type runs a Windows document. The full file system path of the document (including filename) should be stored in the FILE_PATH column on the REALM table. This document must have an extension that is registered with an application in the Windows Registry. Windows actions can only be run from Client/Server forms.
WEBACT: Generic Web action. This action type runs a URL, which is stored in the URL column of the REALM table. In Client/Server forms, web actions are run in the default Web browser (the browser that is registered with the .htm/.html file extension). The URL should include the scheme (http:, ftp:, and so on) and hostname (for example, //www.yahoo.com), as well as the path and filename.
FRMACT: Forms Action. This action type runs an Oracle Form. The name of the Form is stored in the physical name column. Note that this the internal name of the form, not the filename (.fmb). Forms Actions are associated with Forms Deployments (on the table FORMS_DEPLOYMENT). Each Forms Deployment represents a Version of Forms on the Web or on Client/Server. For each Forms Deployment that a Forms action can be run in, a record is inserted into the table ACTION_FORMS_DEPLOYMENT. Windows deployments cannot be run from Web Forms, so if a Forms Action does not have any Web deployments then it cannot be run from the Web.
PLSQLA: PL/SQL Action. This action type runs a PL/SQL function or procedure on the database.
This field allows you to create more than one version of a realm across more than one database instance.
The name for connecting to remote databases. It is available for external tables and views and all PL/SQL realm types.
The name of the schema that contains the object. The field is available depending on the realm type chosen.
The name to be used for the realm on screen displays. The display name must be unique within active realms. If you leave this field blank, the value in the Physical Name is used for the display name.
Can Be Used on Multiselected Events
This checkbox is available only if the realm type is an action. It allows the action to be performed on multiple events at the same time.
Used for document actions. Stores the full file system path and name of the document associated with the action. The filename should have an extension corresponding to a registered document type in windows. Either this field or the URL field must be filled in for document actions.
Used for document actions. Stores the URL associated with the action. Either this field or the File_path field must be filled in for document actions.
Used for forms actions. Stores the database connect string used when running the forms action. If null then the form is run on the same database instance as Active Retail Intelligence.
This multirecord block is used for forms deployments. The first two fields contain the deployment type (Windows or Web) and forms version for each forms deployment, and are read-only fields. The third column, the available indicator, is a check box. This field is enabled for forms actions. Each row that is checked indicates that the forms action can be run in the corresponding deployment. At least one deployment must be selected for each forms action.
When entering the screen, everything is disabled except for Realm Type and the Cancel button. Once you choose a realm type, all other fields are enabled. If the realm type does not require a database link, then the Database Link field is disabled. For document actions, either the File_path or URL field must be filled in. For forms actions, the Database_string field must be filled in. For Forms actions at least one deployment must be selected.
Clicking OK validates all data, posts the data to the Active Retail Intelligence database, and closes the Realm Maintenance screen. The Realm Find screen is displayed, showing the newly created realm in the realm list.
Clicking OK+Repeat does the same things as OK, except that the Realm Maintenance screen is cleared, rather than exited, and everything except for Realm Type is disabled again.
Clicking Cancel cancels your changes, closes the Realm Maintenance screen, and displays the Realm Find screen.
When editing a realm, depending on the realm's type, fields are turned on or off as described in Adding a realm from the Realm Find screen. Realm Type, Instance ID, and the OK+Repeat button are never enabled.
When the data is queried back, a set of package variables, corresponding to the fields listed below, is filled with the values from the fields. These variables will be used to determine whether anything has changed when the OK button is clicked.
All items are still changeable, but the consequences of these changes must be assessed:
| Item Changed | Action |
|---|---|
| Physical Name | Notify exceptions and events |
| Database Link | Notify exceptions and events |
| Schema | Notify exceptions and events |
When you click OK, the database compares the current values to the persistent package variables. If any differences are found, they are handled according to these rules: when the change you are making will affect some other part of the system, a warning is issued. If you decide to continue with the change, the changes are committed to the database. Otherwise, the operation is simply cancelled. The Realm Maintenance screen is then deactivated, and the Realm Find screen is displayed, showing the realm ID you were editing.
Clicking Cancel cancels any changes you have made, closes the Realm Maintenance screen, and displays the Realm Find screen.
There are only a few differences between adding a realm from the Parameter Maintenance screen and the Realm Find screen:
After clicking OK or Cancel, the screen returns to Parameter Maintenance, not Realm Find.
If the parameter on the Parameter Maintenance screen is set to use Auto Discover, a realm name may have been passed in. If this has happened, the Physical Name is filled in, and the Display Name is defaulted to the same thing. The Display Name is not editable until a Realm Type is chosen. Physical Name is never editable.
Several validation sequences occur on this screen:
Whenever you change the realm type, items are turned on and off appropriately, as described in the discussions of required and enabled fields. If any fields are deactivated, they are cleared as well.
The Physical Name field is checked to make sure that the name does not conflict with any active realms. If it conflicts with an inactive realm, the sequence number is incremented to one higher than the last version. Otherwise, the sequence number is set to 1. If it conflicts with an active realm, an error is raised. If the Display Name field is empty, and the realm isn't an action, or a function, it is set to the same value as the Physical Name field.
The Display Name field is checked to make sure that no active realms with the same display name exist already. If the name already exists, an error is raised.
The Parameter Find screen lists all the parameters defined in your Active Retail Intelligence system, by parameter name, parameter type, and the realm to which the parameter belongs. This view is accessed by clicking the button on the tab bar. When you first open the Metadata Maintenance form, this is the first view displayed.
The Parameter Find view has the following fields.
For the data displayed in columns, you can sort the data by clicking the column headings, and sort in reverse order by clicking the column headings again. You can also use the filtering fields and buttons to filter the display of parameters according to the filtering criteria entered in the fields.
Parameter
The name of the parameter. This field is read-only.
Type
The name of the parameter type to which the parameter belongs. This field is read-only.
Realm
The name of the realm to which the parameter belongs. This field is read-only.
Realm Key
Indicates whether the parameter is part of the key for the realm to which the parameter belongs. This field is read-only.
Sorting
You can sort the realms by the categories of information by clicking the column heading above each column.
Filtering
You can filter the view or realms by filling in the fields above each column and clicking the Filter button. The Clear button clears any active filter.
The three buttons at the bottom of the list are for adding, deactivating, and editing parameters.
Add Button
The Add button adds a parameter. The Parameter Maintenance screen is displayed, where you can add the new parameter.
Delete Button
The Delete button deactivates the selected parameter. You are notified of any impact of deactivating the parameter and asked whether you want to proceed.
Edit Button
The Edit button edits the selected parameter. Displays the Parameter Maintenance screen.
The Parameter Type Find screen displays all active parameter types, or parameter types currently defined in your Active Retail Intelligence system. This screen is accessed by clicking the Parameter Type button on the Metadata Maintenance form.
Information displayed on this screen includes the parameter type ID, parameter type name, data type, and parent parameter type name, displayed in a table of columns. All three displayed columns are sortable by clicking the sort buttons above each column. In addition, all three displayed columns are filterable by filling in the fields above each column and clicking the button.
Parameter Type
The name of the parameter type. This field is read-only.
Data Type
The name of the parameter type's data type. This field is read-only.
Parent Parameter Type
The name of the parameter type's parent's name. This field is read-only.
The Lookup Find screen lists all of the active realms that are lookups on the Active Retail Intelligence system. This screen is accessed by clicking the Lookup Data button on the Metadata Maintenance form. From this screen, you can view and edit lookups on the Lookup Data Edit screen.
This section describes the fields on the Lookup screen.
Lookup
This column displays the text of the lookup. This column is sortable by clicking the sort buttons above it. You can filter the view of the Lookup column by filling in the field above it and clicking the Filter button. To clear an active filter, click the Clear button. Although the filter field is editable, the list of lookups in the column is read-only. To edit a lookup, select it and click the Edit button. The Lookup Data Edit screen is displayed.
Input Parameters
This column displays a list of each lookup's input parameter set. This set is comprised of the parameters' names concatenated together, with semicolons separating them.
Output Parameter
The output value column displays a list of each lookup's output parameter.
The Lookup Data Edit screen displays the input values and output values for lookups in your system and allows you to edit them. There are two parts to the Lookup Data Edit screen, described below as the Top Half and the Bottom Half.
The top part of the screen displays all the existing input and output values for the lookup. All of the inputs for the retrieved output are retrieved and strung together in the same way that the input parameters were in the header; that is, delimited by semicolons and ordered by parameter ID. Filling in these values may take a significant amount of time. If the output sequence number is 0, this means that this output is the default value, so the input values field for this record will be "Default Value".
When this screen is displayed, a check is made to make sure that for every parameter in the lookup, there is a parameter of the same parameter type with a lookup indicator on 'Y'. If this check fails, then all buttons except for Cancel are disabled and a message is displayed stating that because the form is unable to validate all values, you may not enter any more data until the situation is fixed.
Add Button
The Add button adds a new set of input and output parameters and values. The bottom half of the screen is enabled for entering the values.
Edit Button
The Edit button edits a selected set of input and output values. When both creating and editing, the top of half of the screen is disabled and the fields in the bottom half of the screen are enabled.
Delete Button
The Delete button deletes a selected set of input and output values.
OK
Saves changes to the input and output values and closes the screen.
Cancel
Cancels any edits and closes the screen, returning to the Lookup Find screen.
The bottom half of the screen is for entering new input and output values for the lookup, or editing existing input and output values. Clicking the button or the button moves the cursor to this part of the screen.
Input Parameter
The name of the input parameter.
Value
The value of the input parameter. To display a list of valid values for a parameter, click the LOV button in the value column.
Output Parameter
The name of the output parameter.
Value
The value of the output parameter. To display a list of valid values for a parameter, click the LOV button in the value column.
Apply
Verifies and applies the changes you have made in the lookup editor part of the screen. The input and output value fields are checked to make sure they are not blank, and the database is queried to make sure that the input value set is unique. Control is returned to the upper part of the screen.
Cancel
Cancels any changes to the lookup's input and output parameters and returns control to the upper half of the screen.
