Business object association requirements
In addition to other steps you perform when you define new business objects, there is an extra step to perform if a business object will be used to create records for a hierarchy.
For each kind of record that can appear in a hierarchy, the platform restricts what kinds of records may appear under it in the hierarchy. The way this is controlled is through the business objects used to create the records. The kinds of child records that a record in a hierarchy can have is determined by associations that are defined for the business object that is used to create the record. If an association named Is Parent Of is defined from a business object, records created from the business object can be in the hierarchy as the parent of a record that is created from a business object on the other side of the association.
On the parent side, the name of the association must be Is Parent Of. The association name Is Parent Of is treated specially. When you specify that the name on the near side an association is Is Parent Of, the Data Modeler forces the name on the far side of the association to be Is Parent Of. It also forces the module that contains the business object on the far side of the association to be the same as on the near side.
Due to the special significance of the Is Parent Of association, it is displayed specially in the Data Modeler's Association List with cyan color coding as shown in the following figure.
Is Parent Of associations are used to determine the structure of a request central portal section.
Is Parent Of revises a business object
The platform treats associations that are named Is Parent Of specially. Associations with other names can be defined for published business objects because defining them does not change the business objects that the association references.
Because associations named Is Parent Of are treated specially, when you define one, the platform changes the business object on the Is Parent Of side of the association. The changes are needed to account for the additional structure that the new association imparts to a hierarchy.
Rather than preventing you from defining an association that is named Is Parent Of on its near side that also refers to a published business object on its near side, the platform changes the state of the business object from Published to Revision in Progress. After you define an association that is named Is Parent Of, the changes to the hierarchy are not visible outside the Data Modeler until you publish the business object on the near side of the association.