Creating business objects

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This topic is shared by BAW, CP4BA, CP4BASaaS. Last updated on 2025-03-13 12:15
When no system data toolkit variable types or business objects match your specifications, you can create custom variable types called business objects.

About this task

You can create a custom business object in the designer by using a base business object or by defining a new complex structure.

When you create a business object in a process application, that object is available for all business processes and services in the process application. If you want to share a custom business object acrossprocess application, create or store the custom object in a toolkit. Then, create a dependency on that toolkit from the process application that requires the variable.

Important: Ensure that business object names are unique across all toolkits and process applications. Duplicate business object names can lead to ambiguity during runtime resolution. When multiple business objects share names, the runtime resolves them based on the dependency ranking of toolkits, which can result in the wrong business object being loaded. This behavior can cause unpredictable errors, such as Property name not found in business object, when the resolved business object has a different structure than expected. To avoid these issues, always use unique names for your business objects or rename existing ones to prevent conflicts.

Procedure

  1. Open the designer.
  2. In the library, beside Data click + and select Business Object to create a business object. Alternately, you can create a business object by clicking New when you create a variable.
    The New Business Object window opens.
  3. In the Name field, type a name for the custom business object and click Finish.
    Remember: Names of business objects are case-sensitive.
  4. Under Behavior, you see definition types.
    Simple type
    Creates a new simple business object that is derived from one of Boolean, Date, Decimal, Integer, Selection, String, or Time. A simple type that is created with the business object editor cannot be initialized before use with a business process or service unlike a complex type. If you do initialize a simple type that uses the new keyword, then you receive a runtime error.
    Complex type
    Creates a new complex business object by specifying the parameters for the structure. Complex structure types that contain primitive types must initialize the primitive types before use.
    An example of initializing a primitive type before use is tw.local.myListOfComplexTypes[0].name = "";.
  5. Select a type from the Definition type list.
    • If you selected Simple type, select the type of your business object and specify a validation if you want. For example, you might want to limit the number of characters for a String type.

      Ad hoc activity runtime behavior affects some string properties. None (unlimited in length) defaults to a maximum of 64 characters. You see a warning that states this limit when you select this property. If your application requires a large string, use the Range property and set a large maximum length. Fixed (always the same length) becomes a maximum length.

    • If you selected Complex type, add the parameters and a description of each one, if you want. You can also order the parameters.
  6. If the business object and its values must be accessible to other instances at run time, select Shared Object.
  7. To perform validation checks, calculations, or access checks on the shared business object during save handling, select Save service and specify the heritage service or service flow to use as a save service.
    For more information about save services, see Save services for shared business objects.
  8. Click Save or Finish Editing.
    For details about declaring variables for the client-side human services, see Declaring variables