Working with variables for content objects

Data objects that are defined in a case solution are also available in the designer, where you can use them to implement case activities that use a process and build user interfaces. The data objects include content objects that represent the set of properties that are associated with a case and activity.

About this task

To access the properties of a case solution, in the Business Automation Studio, open the case solution in the designer. In the library for the opened case solution, under Data, you can see a list of all the data types that have been defined in Case Builder and brought in to the designer. The Content Object section of the list includes all the business objects, case types, and activities. The Property section of the list includes all the case properties that have been "mirrored" in the designer.

To understand how the content objects for case types, activities, and business objects can be used in the designer, say you want to leverage some of the exposed content objects in a process that implements a case type activity. By default, processes created in Case Builder include a reference to the corresponding content objects. In the Variables view of the process, under Content Objects, you can see the content objects that you can work with. In the Definition view, the user task for the process is implemented as a client-side human service, which models the user interface (UI) for the specified case activity implementation.

If you are creating a new client-side human service for one of the following entities in a process that implements a case activity, the New Client-Side Human Service wizard enables you to select content objects as well as variables to use as inputs or outputs for the new client-side human service:

  • User task
  • Details UI
  • Launch UI

In the Variables view of the client-side human service, all the content object variables are passed by reference between the process implementing the case type activity and the service and they are listed as input variables. You can select the properties of each content object to specify which case data to expose to the client at run time, as described in the procedure below.

Note that you can also use views to represent the different case properties. When you create a client-side human service for your case solution UI, you can use the views that have the case properties.

Note: When a client-side human service is created with a content object as input or output, all properties are included by default. However, hidden case properties are not displayed and their data is not exposed to the client at run time regardless of whether the properties are modeled in the interface. To display hidden case properties and pass their data at run time, follow the steps in the procedure below.
Tip: When you use content objects in a client-side human service for task completion, a data handler must be implemented in order to refresh the case or activity properties in the task completion UI. Similarly, you can configure the links in a client-side human service to serialize the execution context and update the content objects that are required to send data back to the case instance. For more information, see Handling data changes and Saving the execution state.

Procedure

For security or privacy purposes, to reduce the exposure of customer data at run time, for example, you might want to filter out some of the case properties that you don't want to expose to the client through the UI. To specify which case properties to pass to the client-side human service and expose at run time:

  1. Open the client-side human service for the process that implements the case type activity in the designer.
  2. Click Variables to see the input content objects.
  3. In the input variable list, select a top-level content object, then click Configuration Configuration button for filtering content object variables.
  4. In the Filter Content Object Properties dialog, select the properties that you want to use in the service, and then click Save.
    The properties that you did not select will not be passed to the service at run time.
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each input content object.
  6. Add content to the default coach in the client-side human service:
    1. In the coach layout, click the appropriate insertion point to display the view palette.
    2. Add case content to the coach directly from a variable: click the Variable The Variable category in the palette toolbar category in the palette toolbar to display the list of available content objects, then click a variable to add it to the coach layout.
    3. For the case properties that you have added to the coach, under Behavior, the properties are already bound to the correct values, and the labels are bound to the correct display names.