Understanding Component Interface Class

Component Interfaces are the focal points for externalizing access to existing PeopleSoft components. They provide realtime synchronous access to the PeopleSoft business rules and data associated with a component outside the PeopleSoft online system. Component Interfaces can be viewed as "black boxes" that encapsulate PeopleSoft data and business processes, and hide the details of the structure and implementation of the underlying page and data.

Component Interfaces are one of the many APIs that PeopleSoft provides for enabling integration with other systems.

A Component Interface maps to one, and only one, PeopleSoft component. The Component Interface object, instantiated from a session object, is created at runtime to access the data specified by the Component Interface.

When you instantiate a Component Interface object:

• All the PeopleCode programs associated with the record fields, pages, component, and so on, and

• The runtime component processor still perform all of the work that they do in the online environment.

The exceptions are any GUI manipulation found in a PeopleCode program, and search dialog specific processing.

Component Interfaces are programmable through a C interface, an OLE/COM or C/C++ interface, and through PeopleCode. Application Engine programs, message notification programs, or any other PeopleCode programs are able to use Component Interfaces.

Like a component, you create the structure of a Component Interface in Application Designer, then at runtime, you populate the structure with data. This document is concerned with the runtime portion of a Component Interface.

When you populate a Component Interface with data, the first thing you fill out are its keys, as you would in a component. These can be keys for getting an existing instance of the data or for creating a new instance of the data.

In addition to keys, a Component Interface is composed of properties and methods.

• Component Interface properties provide access to the data in a component buffer.

• Component Interface methods are functions that can be called to perform operations on a Component Interface.

There are two types of both methods and properties: standard and user-defined. Standard properties and methods are provided automatically when you create a Component Interface. They perform operations common to all Component Interfaces, such as indicating what mode to operate the Component Interface, saving, or creating a Component Interface. User-defined properties are the specific record fields that an application developer has chosen to expose to an external system with the Component Interface. User-defined methods are PeopleCode programs that an application developer can write to perform operations on a Component Interface. Each is specific to that Component Interface.

You can instantiate a Component Interface object only from a session object. Through the session object you can control access to the Component Interface, check for errors, control the runtime environment, and so on.