Configuring a Data Request to Return Field Data

A data request includes filtering criteria and indicates the fields that contain data that you want returned. For example, a business analyst wants to add a data request to an orchestration that returns a customer's credit limit amount. The orchestration has "Customer Number" defined as an input. To configure the data request, the business analyst:

Sets up filter criteria with a condition that filters on Address Number.
Selects the Credit Limit and Alpha Name fields for the return data.
Adds the data request to the orchestration, mapping the Customer Number input in the orchestration to the Address Number in the data request.
When the data request is added to the orchestration, the Credit Limit and Alpha Name fields automatically become additional inputs to the orchestration, and the business analyst can then map these inputs to the subsequent orchestration steps.
In order to have the returned values be available in subsequent steps of an orchestration, the Variable column for each of the return value in the Return Fields and Variable Names grid must be populated. Otherwise, the return value is just available for mapping in the orchestration outputs, but not available as an input.

Starting with Release 9.2.5, you can enable the Return toggle for the Include Count field in Data request to include the row count as a variable. You can also enable the Return toggle for the Include Count field to count the number of records in the grid.

To configure a data request to return field data:

On the Orchestrator Studio Home page, click the Data Requests icon.
Create a data request as described in Creating a Component.
On the Data Request design page, in the Table/View Name field, enter the name of the table or the business view.
If you do not know the table or business view name, but you know the application that uses the table or business view, click the Get View from Form button.
In the dialog box that is displayed, enter the application ID and select the form. The associated business view is then retrieved and displayed in the Table/View Name grid.
Click the Load button.
The Orchestrator Studio loads all the fields from the table or business view into the grid.
Note: You can use the Data Set Variable Name field to configure the data request to return a data set. See Retrieving and Passing Data Sets in an Orchestration for more information.
Define the filtering criteria for the data request:
1. In the grid on the left, click the Filter icon next to the field or fields that contain data on which you want to filter on.
  The Orchestrator Studio displays each field in the Filter Criteria area on the right.
2. In the Filter Criteria section, for each field in the Operator box, select the appropriate operand and in the adjacent field, enter a literal value or a variable.
  1. A variable appears in the field by default. If you modify the variable name, make sure that the syntax includes the $ sign and braces, for example:
  ${Address Number 1}
  If you do not enter a variable using ${}, the literal value that you enter will be used directly in the filter criteria.
  2. If the field is a date, you can use the drop-down arrow at the end of the row to set a special value, such as today plus or minus the number of days, months, or years that you specify.
  If you want to add multiple values for date, select the "is in list" operator and click the List button in the Values column. Then click Add and set the value.
3. Select the Match All or Match Any option to determine how the conditions are applied.
  You can also click the Options button, and from the Query Name drop-down list, select a predefined query to use for the filtering criteria. You can use a query instead of or in combination with the filtering criteria that are defined in a data request. The queries that you can see in this list are based on UDO security permissions.
4. (Release 9.2.5.4) Enable the Include Empty Query Values option if you want to include the empty values in the query when the data request runs.
  
  For the existing data requests, this option is enabled by default and therefore all the defined fields for the query are always included even if they are empty. If you disable this option, any empty query values at runtime will not be included in the query (potentially resulting in more records returned).
Specify the data you want returned:
1. In the grid on the left, click the Return icon next to each field for which you want data to be returned.
  The Orchestrator Studio adds each field to the Return Fields and Variable Names section on the right.
2. (Optional) You can use a variable for the return by entering a name for the variable in the adjacent blank field.
  Note: Return variables do not need the ${} notation. This notation is only necessary for input variables to distinguish between a variable and a literal value.
  When you add a data request to an orchestration, these variables are automatically added to the orchestration as inputs, which you can use to map return data to subsequent orchestration steps.
  
  (Release 9.2.6) Enable the Associated Description option if you want to return the description associated with the variable. If you enable this option, the associated description is available as an orchestration variable in subsequent orchestration steps and for inclusion in the orchestration output.
  
  When you add this data request to an orchestration, you can use these variables to map the data in the data set to a subsequent orchestration step.
For the return data, determine the order by which you want the data returned:
1. In the grid on the left, select the Order By icon next to any field that was selected for the return data.
  The Orchestrator Studio adds the field name to the Order By area on the right.
2. In the drop-down list next to the field name, select Ascending or Descending.

You can use the Options button to configure settings that control how the AIS Server processes a data request at runtime. See Configuring Form Request and Data Request Processing.