Selecting business objects and services

To specify which data you want to query, you provide information in the external service wizard.

Before you begin

Make sure you have set the connection properties for the external service wizard.

About this task

Specify search criteria that the external service wizard uses to query data on the SAP server. The external service wizard returns the data that meets the search criteria.

You can use the discovered tables to generate individual objects (objects that have no relationship to each other) or to generate objects that have a hierarchical structure.

If you are generating individual objects, you can import one or more objects from the list of discovered tables at the same time.
If you are generating hierarchical objects, you must import the parent tables first and then import the child tables.
When you configure the child tables for import, you can select the parent table you imported earlier as its parent. Repeat this process to add more tables to the hierarchical structure. A hierarchical object with three levels, for example, requires three separate imports to establish the parent-child relationship.

To specify the search criteria, use the following procedure.

Procedure

In the Specify the Discovery Properties window, indicate which table or tables you want to work with.
1. Click QISS to enable the filter
  button.
2. Click the filter button.
  Note: Instead of using the filter capability, you can expand QISS and select the table from the list. Then skip ahead to step 4.
From the Filter Properties window, specify information about the table.
1. Select Discover objects by name or Discover objects by description from the Object attribute to use for discovery list.
2. Type a search string (for example, KN*) representing the table.
  This is the name of the table in SAP plus an asterisk as a wild card character to indicate that you want a list of all SAP application components that start with KN.
3. Indicate the number of objects you want returned by changing the value in the Maximum number of objects to retrieve field or by accepting the default value.
4. Click OK.
Select the table objects.
1. Expand QISS (filtered).
2. Click the table object you want to use.
Click the arrow button to add the table object to the Selected objects list.
In the Specify the Configuration Properties for 'object' table window, provide information about the table:
1. The Add a WHERE clause field specifies the primary key to the table. A default value is provided. Change this value if you want to use a different primary key.
  In the example of the KNA1 table, shown in the following figure, the default value is KUNNR = /CustomerNumber1. The KUNNR field is one of the primary keys in the KNA1 table. The WHERE query will return information based on the customer number provided in the query.
2. Optionally select the Use SAP field names to generate attribute names check box. By default (when the check box is not selected), the field descriptions are used to generate properties.
3. Indicate which columns you want included in the query.
  Note: There are many columns and, by default, all the columns are selected. You can clear the check from those columns you do not want included, or if you want to select only a few columns, you can use the Select or unselect all columns check box.
  
  For example, if you want only two columns, clear Select or unselect all columns to remove the check from all columns, and then select the two columns you want.
  
  Figure 1. The Specify the Configuration Properties for 'object' KNA1 window
4. Click OK
To include another table in the query, perform the following tasks:
1. Click QISS to enable the filter
  button.
2. Click the filter button.
  Note: Instead of using the filter capability, you can expand QISS and select the table from the list.
From the Filter Properties window, specify information about the table.
1. Select Discover objects by name or Discover objects by description from the Object attribute to use for discovery list.
2. Type a search string (for example, ADRC) representing the table.
3. Indicate the number of functions you want returned by changing the value in the Maximum number of objects to retrieve field or by accepting the default value.
4. Click OK.
Select the table objects.
1. Expand QISS (filtered).
2. Click the second table object.
3. Click the arrow button to add the table object to the Selected objects list.
In the Specify the Configuration Properties for 'object' table window, provide information about the table:
1. The Add a WHERE clause field specifies the primary key to the table. A default value is provided. Change this value if you want to use a different primary key.
2. Optionally select the Use SAP field names to generate attribute names check box. By default (when the check box is not selected), the field descriptions are used to generate properties.
3. Associate this table with the one you previously added (KNA1 in the example) by selecting that table from the Select a parent table section of the window.
4. Under Map the primary key columns to the parent-table foreign key reference columns, select a value to link the tables.
  For example, you might select ADRNR for ADDRNUMBER.
  
  Figure 2. The Specify the Configuration Properties for 'object'ADRC window
5. Indicate which columns you want included in the query.
6. Click OK
Click Next.

Results

The external service wizard returns the data that matches the search criteria.

What to do next

From the Specify Composite Properties window, optionally specify a namespace and directory to which the generated business object will be stored and indicate whether you want a business graph generated.