Schema Editor Window

The schema editor allows you to modify individual elements and attributes of a given schema.

Description of Page

Refer to System Wide Functions for Schema Editor for information about the various menu options available for the schema editor.

Service Name Enter the name of the service to be created in the service name text box. This is the name of the first element under the Body element in the XML document.

CAUTION:

Important! When adding new schemas, carefully consider the naming convention for the Service Name. Refer to System Data Naming Convention for more information.

Adapter The adapter used to process services using this schema.

Internal Service Name If the schema is for an adapter that should invoke a system service, this is the internal name of the service.

Transaction Type Select the transaction type performed by the service. The available values are Read, Add, Change, Update, Delete, List and Search.

Note: The difference between Change and Update is that for Change, all field values must be passed in with the request. Field values that are not passed in to the request are set to null. For Update, you need only pass the primary key field values and the values of the fields to be updated. All other fields retain their existing values.

Left Panel

The left panel of the schema editor displays a tree view of the hierarchical elements in the schema. The (+) expands a node, the (-) collapses a node.

Right Panel

The following attributes appear on the right panel of the Schema Editor. Some fields cannot be modified in the schema editor. The field description indicates when the field is protected.

Tag Name The XML element tag name. This field is protected, but you may modify this attribute to give the element a self-explanatory name by right-clicking on the element name in the left tree-view.

MetaInfo Name Maps the element to a fully qualified field name in the service, for example PER_ID. This field is protected.

Internal Type This property is populated automatically when you generate the schema from your product. The values further define elements and attributes. The values are page, pageBody, list, listHeader, listBody, searchHeader, codeTableDesc, Private. The values of codeTableDesc and Private are used to define special types of attributes. Refer to How to Create Code Description Attribute and How to Create a Private Attribute for more information.

Private attribute A field that does not exist on the server side, but one that you still want to have in the schema. Refer to How to Create a Private Attribute for more information.

Description A description of this field.

Content The element type. This field is only available for elements. Possible values are eltOnly- element may contain only other elements and no text, TextOnly- element may only contain text.

Search Type Services, which perform a Search, may allow searching based on different criteria. The values are taken from the system meta information when the schema is generated. The possible values are Main, Alternate1, Alternate2, Alternate3, Alternate4, Alternate5 and Alternate6.

Note: You would not typically modify this value because it corresponds to a value in the meta information. However, the value is modifiable to accommodate the rare case in which a service may change in a new release. In this scenario, you may prefer to update the schema manually rather than regenerate a new schema for the new version.

Is Part of Primary Key Used to indicate to the XAI server whether or not this field makes up part of the primary key of the record. The values are taken from the metadata information when the schema is generated. Value may be true or false.

Note: Typically you would not modify this value because it corresponds to a value in the meta data information. However, the value is modifiable to accommodate the rare case where a service may change in a new release. In this scenario, you may prefer to update the schema manually rather than regenerate a new schema for the new version.

Min Occurs This field is available for elements only and is used for repeating elements. It defines the minimum number of occurrences for an element. Value may be 0 or 1.

Schema Max Occurs This field is available for elements only and is used for repeating elements. It defines the maximum number of occurrences for an element. Value may be 0, 1 or *.

Limit Number of occurrences This field is available for elements only and is used for repeating elements. If the Schema Max Occurs field has been set to '*', define the number of max occurrences here.

XML Data Type The data type for the attribute. Possible values are number, string, decimal, date, dateTime, and boolean.

Server Data Type Indicates the data type of this attribute on the server. This field is protected.

Server Format The format expected by the service. At runtime, XAI converts the Tag format to the Service Format before executing the request. Formats are defined in XAI Format.

Tag Format The format used to format an element/attribute in the schemas. Formats are defined in XAI Format.

Min Length Use this property to define the minimum length of the attribute, if applicable.

Max Length Use this property to define the maximum length of the attribute, if applicable.

Precision This is used for decimal attributes to define the maximum number of digits.

Scale This field is used for decimal attributes to define the number of digits at the right of the decimal point.

Required A value of Y indicates that the element must appear in XML document. A value of N indicates that the element is optional.

Default value Default value to be used for Request schema, when the element is not supplied as part of the XML request document.

Fixed Value Fixed value to be used for Request schema. This value is used regardless of the value supplied in the request document.

Code Table Field This property is used for attributes that are descriptions of a code table, where the description is not automatically returned by the system service. Use this property to indicate the code whose description should be retrieved by the XAI server. Refer to How to Create Code Description Attribute for more information.

Code Table Program This property is used for attributes that are descriptions of a code table, where the description is not automatically returned by the system service. Use this field to indicate the program that XAI should call to access the description for the Code Table Field. Refer to How to Create Code Description Attribute for more information.

Creating a Schema

Usually you do not create schemas from scratch; rather you use Schema Creation Wizards to import existing data structure definitions from a variety of data sources:

System services
Comma Delimited Files (CSV)
Database Extract
Any XML document
Siebel Virtual Business Components
Siebel Integration Objects

Fastpath: Refer to How to Create XML Schemas for detail about each creation wizard.

Once a schema is created based on the existing data structure, it is displayed in a TreeView on the left panel. Once the imported schema has been edited, it serves as the basis for creating the request and response schemas. When imported, the schema exposes all fields defined in the service. You may want to remove some attributes/elements from the request or response schema.

Note: Although the main purpose of the editing process in the creation of the request and response schemas is the elimination of elements, which makes the schema shorter and more understandable, it is not required for processing purposes. Therefore, if you don't mind that you have not used elements in your schemas, you could stay with one schema, which serves as both the request and response schema.

1. Save the Schema as a Request schema with an appropriate name, for example PersonInfoRequestSchema.xml

2. To create the Response schema, which is identical to the request schema, use the Save As Response menu option. This renames the top element of the schema to ServiceNameResponse, for example PersonInfoResponse and save the schema under a different name i.e. PersonInfoResponseSchema.xml. Note that if the request and response schemas are identical then one schema may be used for both and there is no need to create separate schemas.

3. Read in the Request Schema (File/Open) and modify its structure. Depending on the service type, you'll have to modify the contents of the Request Schema. This is usually required when the service is an "Info" service, which requires very few input elements. In such cases you'll delete most of the elements on the schema and only leave the necessary elements required to invoke the service. For example: in the PersonInfo request, you only need the PersonId and the Company elements in the request schema.

4. Read in the Response Schema (File/Open) and Modify its structure. Depending on the service type, you'll want to modify the contents of the Response Schema. This is usually required when the service is an "Add" or "Delete" service, which returns very few input elements. In such cases you'll delete most of the elements on the response schema and only leaves the necessary elements required by the requester of the service.

Adding an Element/Attribute

Usually, you won't have to add element or attributes to a schema. However if the schema already exists and you want to add an element/attribute, you can follow this procedure. Be aware that any element/attribute added here must also exist on the xml metainfo.

Select the element's node on the TreeView.
Right click on it and select the 'Add Element' or 'Add Attribute' option in the pop up menu
Enter the element/attribute name in the prompt dialog box and click OK.

Removing Elements/Attributes

When generating a schema using one of the wizards, the generated schema may contain information that you do not want to publish as part of the service, or is not required for a particular service. You can remove elements/attributes from the schema, and though these elements/attributes may still exist on the service they are not seen by the XAI service using this schema. To remove an element or attribute:

Select the node to be removed.
Right click and select "Delete" from the popup menu.

Renaming an Element

To rename an element:

Select the element's node on the TreeView.
Right click it and select the Rename option in the pop up menu
Enter the new name in the prompt dialog box and click OK.

Note: The information in this table is cached by the XAI server and by the MPL server. Changes to values in this table do not affect the runtime copy of these servers. Refer to XAI Command for information about refreshing a schema.