Creating a Custom Fetch Action Chain

Creating a Custom Fetch Action Chain - An Example

Let's go through an example of creating a custom fetch action chain for an SDP. In this example, we'll add a Single Select component to a page and bind it to an SDP in order to list the department headquarters from a business object. We'll then configure the Single Select component to show additional fields, and create a custom fetch action chain for the SDP to retrieve the data for the additional fields. Each row in the list will show the department headquarters' name, the country that the headquarters is in, and an image of the country's flag.

Before we begin, we'll need to create a Departments HQ business object with a Name and a Country field. We'll also need to add a Single Select component to a page and to use a Quick Start to map it to the Departments HQ business object.

Let's begin by creating the Departments HQ business object:

Select the Business Object tab, then click + at the top right to create a new business object called Departments_HQ.
On the Departments HQ tab, select the Fields tab and add a name (String) and a country (String) field.
On the Data tab, add a few rows for the Select Single component to list:

Description of the illustration sdp-dept-hq-bo.png

Next, we'll add a Select Single component to a page, and then use its Add Options Quick Start to map it to the Departments HQ business object.
Create a new page, then in the Page Designer tab, add a Select (Single) component to the page.
To map the component to the Department HQ business object, on the Properties pane's Quick Start tab, select Add Options.
For the Locate Data step of the Add Options wizard, under Business Objects, select Departments_HQ. Click Next.
For the wizard's Bind Data step, under Dropdown options, drag-and-drop the country field into the Label box and the name field into the Value box. Click Next.

Description of the illustration sdp-bind-data.png

For the wizard's Define Query step, click Finish.

An SDP is automatically created for Department HQ, which fetches the name fields from the business object. You can see the new SDP on the page's Variables tab. You can also see that the Select Single component has automatically been bound to the SDP on the Properties pane's Data tab. If you switch the Page Designer to Live mode and click the Select Single component's down arrow, you'll see the department names that were fetched by the SDP:
Description of sdp-single-select-live.png follows
Description of the illustration sdp-single-select-live.png

We now need to configure the Single Select component to show additional fields, including an image to show each country's flag.

Click the Page Designer's Code button to edit the page's HTML code. Add the following HTML code to the oj-select-single tag, which adds a table to the Single Select component so that it can show additional fields:

      <template slot="collectionTemplate" data-oj-as="collection">        
        <oj-table
          accessibility.row-header="[[['department', 'country']]]"
          horizontal-grid-visible="disabled"
          vertical-grid-visible="disabled"
          selection-mode='{"row": "single"}'
          columns-default='{"resizable": "disabled",
                            "sortable": "disabled"}'
          columns='[
            {"headerText":"Department HQ","field":"name","template":"departmentTemplate", "id":"name" },
            {"headerText":"Country","field":"country","template":"countryTemplate", "id":"country"},
            {"headerText":"","field":"countryFlag","template":"flagTemplate", "id":"countryFlag"}
          ]'
          class="oj-select-results"
          data="[[collection.data]]"
          selected.row="[[collection.selected]]"
          on-oj-row-action="[[collection.handleRowAction]]">

          <template slot="departmentTemplate" data-oj-as="cell">
            <span>
                <oj-bind-text value='[[cell.data]]'></oj-bind-text>
            </span>
          </template>
          <template slot="countryTemplate" data-oj-as="cell">            
            <span>
              <oj-bind-text value='[[cell.data]]'></oj-bind-text>
            </span>
          </template>
          <template slot="flagTemplate" data-oj-as="cell">            
            <oj-avatar src='[[cell.data]]'></oj-avatar>
          </template>

        </oj-table>
      </template>

Description of sdp-select-single-html.png follows

Description of the illustration sdp-select-single-html.png

Next, we need to create a service connection for retrieving the flag images.

Select the Services pane, then click its plus (+) icon and select Service Connection:

Description of the illustration sdp-create-service-connection.png
In the Create Service Connection wizard, under Select Source, select Define by Endpoint.
In the URL field, enter the endpoint https://restcountries.com/v3.1/all?fields=name,flags to retrieve the flag images, then click Create Backend:

Description of the illustration sdp-create-service-connection-url.png

A backend is created for this service connection, which stores the server details. You can use this backend to create related service connections, and to apply endpoint requests and response transform functions to them all.
On the Backend Specification step, enter GetFlagsBackend as the Backend Name and click Next.
On the next step, enter GetFlags for the Service Name.

Now that the preliminary work has been completed, we can see how to create a custom fetch action chain for an SDP that's bound to a component. We'll first customize the fetch action chain that was automatically created for the SDP when it was mapped to the Departments HQ business object, so that it'll also retrieve flag images. To keep things simple, we won't do any error handling.

To begin:

Go to the page's Variables tab and select the SDP that's bound to the Select Single component.
In the Properties pane, scroll down to the bottom and click Customize Fetch Action Chain:

Description of the illustration sdp-customize-fetch-button.png

You're taken to the Action Chains editor, where the SDP's fetch action chain is loaded, which has an auto-generated name and a preconfigured Call REST action.

Note:
A configuration object has been passed to the action chain, however, it’s for internal use only. Don't try to use this object, as it can change in between versions in incompatible ways.

Description of the illustration sdp-custom-fetch-chain.png
Under the provided Call REST action, add another Call REST action.
In the Properties pane, click the Endpoint property's Select link. In the Select Endpoint dialog, expand the Services node, then the GetFlags node and select the GET /all endpoint. Click Select.
Add a For Each action under the last Call REST action.
In the Properties pane, for the items property, enter the location of the returned array of departments using the result from the call to get the departments. For example: {{ callRestGetAllDept.body.items }}:

Description of the illustration sdp-fetch-chain-each.png
Add a JS Code action to the Add Action area of the For Each action.
In the Properties pane, replace the text in the Code box with this code to add the flag image to the data that's to be returned by the action chain: item.countryFlag = callRestGetAllFlags.body.find(country => country.name.common === item.country)?.flags.png;

Description of the illustration sdp-custom-fetch-chain-complete.png

The custom fetch action chain is complete and ready for you to try out! Now, when you go to view the Select Single component's list, you'll see each department's country and an image of the country's flag:

Description of sdp-select-single-flags.png follows

Description of the illustration sdp-select-single-flags.png