Trackable Item Content

There are several attributes associated with a trackable item. The majority of the attributes are user supplied. The last attribute is generated when the item is added to the database. Table 1 describes the attributes.

Table 1. Trackable Item Attributes
Field Name	Field Type	Maximum Length	Direction
TRACKING_NAME	String	254	INPUT
TRACKING_TYPE	String	50	INPUT
SEND_FLAG	Boolean		INPUT
SOURCE	String	100	INPUT
TARGET	String	100	INPUT
SITE	Integer		INPUT
DATE	String	20	INPUT
CATEGORY	String	2	INPUT
AFFECTS_EOD	Boolean		INPUT
EXPECTED_BY	Timestamp		INPUT
ALERT_EMAIL	String	100	INPUT
ALERT_EMAIL_LIST	Boolean		INPUT
TRACKING_ID	Long		OUTPUT

Note: All boolean attributes are stored in the database as integers, with zero representing false and one representing true.

The attributes in Table 2 provide details about the tracked item.

Table 2. Tracked Item Details
Attribute Name	Description
TRACKING_NAME	The name of the tracked item. The transmission name, for example.
TRACKING_TYPE	The type of item being tracked
SOURCE	The source of the item being tracked
TARGET	The target of the item being tracked
SEND_FLAG	Indicates if the item is being sent (true) or received (false)

With the exception of SEND_FLAG, each of these attributes is user defined and can be anything that makes sense to the client application. However, they must all be specified as they are required fields. No NULL values are admissible. The field should be unique enough to make locating an item easier.

The attributes in Table 3 are used to associate the tracked item with a Transaction Server business day.

Table 3. Trackable Business Day Attributes
Attribute Name	Description
SITE	The Transaction Server site identifier. It is typically zero.
DATE	The business date
CATEGORY	The business category
AFFECTS_EOD	Indicates whether end of day is inhibited if the item status is not complete

Note:

Each of the fields is optional and may be set to NULL.
If any of the fields, with the exception of AFFECTS_EOD, are specified, all the fields must be specified.
AFFECTS_EOD is optional and defaults to false if unspecified.
If business day information is specified for the tracked item, the item is deleted from the database whenever the business day is subsequently purged.

The fields in Table 4 enable the alert-posting features in the Transaction Server.

Table 4. Trackable Alert Attributes
Attribute Name	Description
EXPECTED_BY	Item is expected by this time designation
ALERT_EMAIL	The email address to receive the item overdue or late alert messages
ALERT_EMAIL_LIST	This field tells the Transaction Server to send the overdue or late item alert messages to a fixed email address list. This address list is specified in the configuration properties of the Transaction Server using the emailAddressList property.

Note:

Each of the fields is optional and may be set to NULL.
If EXPECTED_BY is not specified, the item overdue or late status is not detected and alerts are not posted.
The ALERT_EMAIL and ALERT_EMAIL_LIST attributes are combined to create a single email list to which the alerts are posted. If both are unspecified, no alert email messages are sent. This negates the detection of the item overdue or late status.

The field in Table 5 is created by the insertion of a trackable item. This field uniquely identifies the tracked item in the database.

Table 5. Tracked Item Inserted Output Attributes
Attribute Name	Description
TRACKING_ID	A unique identifier for the item inserted. It is used to identify the specific tracked item in the database.

Once a trackable item is inserted into the FTM database, its registration time is recorded and its completed time stamp is set to unspecified. It uses an internal flag to keep track of whether or not the overdue or late alert messages have been sent. One of the following occurs after the insertion:

The trackable item is posted as complete.
The trackable item is posted with an expected by time. When the expected time is reached, an alert message or messages are sent.
Note: Once the expected by time has expired, it is still possible to post the item as complete. No alerts are sent except for those that were sent previously during the overdue or late detection.