Using Tables to Store Frequently Used Values

Tables are used to store data to be used in processes; for example, you could map customer ID numbers to end-user friendly customer names in tables and have your processes use this to present customer names instead of customer ID's to operators.

Also, many complex processes consist of processes that work with the same parameter values, for instance:

• The name of an external system
• The processing day (or business day) which may not be the same as today
• The name of an SAP instance or client to use for a particular task

These values tend to be used by a large number of processes, and change rarely. They might change:

• On a daily basis (for the business day)
• Between the Development, Quality Assurance and Production environments (for external system names).

In some cases there may be a predefined set of values from which the user can choose:

• A list of countries, provinces or cities
• A list of departments or cost codes

In these cases it is also useful to be able to validate the value a user has entered to ensure it is correct, and to prompt them with a list of valid values. This means that validation can occur at process submission time, rather than at runtime.

• Tables - Tables allow you to store frequently used values and have these form a list in the Submit Wizard.
• Table definitions - Table definitions define tables, listing valid columns and data types.

Note: Unlike most objects, you cannot create a Table in the object's overview page. Tables are created in the Table Definitions overview via the context menu of the table definition you want to use for the table.

Importing Tables

When you import tables, you have the option to overwrite all values in the table or append only new rows to the table.

In-Memory Tables

You store table data in memory to speed up the retrieval of values. This option is useful for tables that have 1000 or more rows. Note that you should use the option with care, very large tables will use a lot of memory.

Tabs and Fields

The following table illustrates the fields of each tab of Credentials editor dialogs.

Accessing Tables from REL

You access tables using the REL table functions.

Context Menu

Tables and table definitions support the following context menu options.

Note: For generally applicable object context menu options, see Object Context Menu.

Finding Tables and Table Definitions

You can search for tables and table definitions using filters and the Search Tables or Search Table Definitions box on the Tables or Table Definitions tabs, respectively. These boxes are known as the IntelliSearch boxes and located under your username on the top right-hand side of the user interface. Filters allow you to specify a list of objects with static criteria. IntelliSearch allows you to specify complex queries in a simple way using prefixes. Prefixes are used to specify which property you are searching in and have short as well as long syntaxes. For example, if you want to display all tables with the term users in the comment, you would use the search criteria as follows:

c:users

You can search more than one property, as follows:

c:users n:ORA

Note: No spaces should be entered before or after the colon ( : ).

See the Advanced Object Search for more information.

The following table illustrates the available prefixes for tables and table definitions:

Deleting Table Definitions and Tables

You can only delete table definitions and tables when no other objects relate to them. For example, if there are Process Definitions that use the table, the table cannot be deleted until all Process Definitions that use it have been modified. You can see Process Definitions that relate to the table in Related Objects in the lower detail pane and on the show page. You cannot delete table definitions if there is a table using it.

The table in related objects contains three columns:

• Type - the type of object with a link to it
• Related Object - the name of the object with a link to it
• Used As - objects can sometimes be used in different roles

Security

The privileges available in the Security tab are as follows.

For more information, see Security Tab.

Procedure

Create a table definition

1. Navigate to "Scripting > Table Definitions".
2. Choose New Table Definition from the context menu and enter a name and application (optional).
3. Choose the Columns tab, and fill in some columns, with data types and specify if the value is allowed to be null.
4. Click Save & Close.

Create a table

1. Navigate to "Scripting > Table Definitions".
2. Choose New Table from the context menu of a table definition and enter a Name and Application (optional).
3. Choose the Values tab, and fill in some columns, the column names must exist in the table definition you specified. The Key column is the field that should contain the data that you want to use.
4. Click Save & Close.

Use a table as a reference in a parameter for parameter values

1. Navigate to Definitions > Processes.
2. Choose Edit from the context menu of the Process Definition.
3. Choose the Parameters tab and select the parameter you would like to use.
4. In the Simple Constraint Type field choose table, enter the name of the table into the Simple Constraint Data field.
5. Click Save & Close.

Result

When you submit the Process Definition, records in the table are available as list-of-values in the parameter field of the Process Definition.

Example

The following code checks the System_Variables table for a system variable with key RW_DEMO, if it does not exist it will create it and assign a value to it, finally, it will print all entries in the table.

{
  Partition p = jcsSession.getPartitionByName("GLOBAL");
  Table t = jcsSession.getTableByName(p, "System_Variables");
  if (t.getTableValueBySearchKeySearchColumnName("RW_DEMO", "SystemValue") == null)
  {
    TableValue ctv = t.createTableValue();
    ctv.setKey("RW_DEMO");
    ctv.setColumnName("SystemValue");
    ctv.setColumnValue("SomeValue");
    jcsSession.persist();
  }
  t.getTableValues().forEach(item -> jcsOut.println(item.getKey() + " : " + item.getColumnName()+" > " + item.getColumnValue()));
}

See Also

• RedwoodScript