Understanding the PeopleSoft Rowset-Based Message Format
To work with rowset-based messages—the PeopleSoft native format—you define a message in the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture, insert records into the message definition in a hierarchical structure, and then populate the message and manipulate its contents by using the PeopleCode Rowset and Message classes. Externally, the message is transmitted as XML with a prescribed PeopleSoft schema.
The PeopleSoft message schema includes a PSCAMA record, which PeopleTools adds to every level of the message structure to convey basic information about the message and its data rows.
The Rowset and IntBroker classes are recommended for messaging between PeopleSoft applications. If a message is populated with data from a PeopleSoft application’s database or component buffer, the Message class is best for handling that data.
Record and Field Aliases
You can specify an alias for any record or field in a rowset-based message definition. Each node participating in a transaction maintains its own independent definition of the message and its versions, including record and field names and their aliases.
When you send a message with an alias defined and the message is converted to XML for sending, only the alias appears in the XML. If you don’t specify an alias, the original name is used. If the service operation is routed to multiple target nodes with different record or field naming schemes, you create for each target a separate service operation version with its own aliases and send each version separately.
The only requirement for a successful transaction is that the record and field names in the XML match either the original names or the aliases that are defined for that message and version at the node receiving the message. This behavior applies to both request and synchronous response messages, but typically only the source node applies aliases to accommodate the target node’s naming scheme in both directions.
In a synchronous transaction, the request and response messages can be completely different from each other. Upon receiving a synchronous request, the target node generates and sends a response message. Upon receiving the response, the source node uses its defined aliases to find and reapply its original record and field names. The resulting inbound message contains the original names that were defined at the source node, not the aliases. Therefore, both the sending and receiving PeopleCode at the source node should expect to work with the source node’s original record and field names.