If you have a comment on this topic, contact Aptify Documentation. If you want to return to the Aptify Community Site, please click here.

Skip to end of metadata
Go to start of metadata

You are viewing an old version of this page. View the current version.

Compare with Current View Page History

Version 1 Next »

Entity Objects that override or enhance the functionality provided by the Generic Entity should import the Aptify.Framework.BusinessLogic.GenericEntity namespace and inherit from the AptifyGenericEntity class. (See "Aptify Generic Entity vs. Aptify Generic Entity Base" on page 60 for a discussion on when to inherit from AptifyGenericEntity and when to inherit from AptifyGenericEntityBase.)
The majority of entity objects written by a developer will override the standard functionality of the following members of the AptifyGenericEntity class to supplement Aptify's standard functionality:

  • Save
  • Validate
  • SetValue
  • GetValue
  • Events

Notes Concerning the IsDirty Property and the AptifyGenericEntity Save Method: The following fields can be used to control the behavior of the IsDirty Property:

  • By default, the AptifyGenericEntity Save method only calls the Validate method if the Object's IsDirty property returns True. However, there are cases where a developer may want to have the Validate method execute during the Save method when the IsDirty property returns False. With this is mind, AptifyGenericEntity's Save method allows a developer to call the Validate method when the IsDirty property is False. To take advantage of this functionality, a developer uses the Field _AlwaysValidate, with a Value that is numeric and non-zero. When that Field and Value are found, the Validate method will be called. 
  • Example: geCompanies.SetAddValue("_AlwaysValidate", 1)
  • There are some rare cases where it can be useful to force the Entity object into a Dirty state without changing an Updateable field's value. During a Save operation, certain actions and events only occur when the object's IsDirty property returns True. With this in mind, AptifyGenericEntity's IsDirty property allows a developer to force an Entity object into a Dirty state. To take advantage of this functionality, a developer uses the Field, _IsDirtyOverride, with a Value that is numeric and non-zero. When the Field and Value are found, the Entity object will be forced into a Dirty State.

Example: geCompanies.SetAddValue("_IsDirtyOverride", 1). <endNote>
In general, a developer will supplement the standard Aptify GE logic by either pre- or post-processing the logic in the GE's base functionality. The entity objects included with the sample application demonstrate how to override the Save and Validate methods to supplement the base GE functionality (as described below). See the AptifyGenericEntity class in the Aptify SDK for information on the other class members that can you can override.

  • RentalAgreementObject Validate Method: The entity object for the Rental Agreements entity overrides the Validate method to impose additional logic to the entity field values depending on the current "state" of the Rental Agreement (for example, when in the "check-out" state, the check-in fields cannot be modified). See "BPR19: Enforce Rental Agreement Consistency" on page 34.
  • RentalAgreementObject Save Method: The entity object for the Rental Agreements entity also overrides the Save method to automatically update a vehicle's status to Rented (following a check-out) or Available (following a check-in). The method also updates the vehicle's mileage for check-in operations. See "BPR11: Automatically Track Vehicle Status and Mileage" on page 32.
  • ServiceTicketObject Save Method: The entity object for the Service Tickets entity is provided as an alternative implementation for the Vehicle Status Updater Process Flow, which automatically updates a vehicle's status to Available when a completed Service Ticket is approved and no other open tickets exist for the vehicle. Note that this entity object is not installed within the sample application (the sample application uses the process flow by default). Aptify provides the source code for this entity object so you can review how the same results can be achieved using either an entity object or a process flow.

The following steps provide an overview of how to write a new entity object for Aptify:
Note: If using the template provided by Aptify for this project, configure the template as described in "Loading the Sample Code and Templates" in the Developer Guide, rename the project and class as necessary, and skip to Step 9.

  1. Open a new Class Library project in Visual Studio.
  2. Configure the Properties for the project.
  • When assigning an assembly name for this object, use this format: [EntityName]Entity (remove spaces in the entity name)For example: VehiclesEntity (or SampleRentalAgreementsEntity, as shown in Figure 11.1).
  • Specify a root namespace for your project.For example: Aptify.SampleApplication.MotorLoaner, as shown in Figure 11.1. Entity Object Properties
  1. Click the References tab in the Properties page and add a reference to the following Aptify objects:
  • AptifyApplication
  • AptifyAttributeManagement
  • AptifyExceptionManagement
  • AptifyGenericEntity
  • AptifyGenericEntityBase
  • AptifyUtility
  • IAptifyDataServicesInfo: References to the following Microsoft Objects should already exist in the project: System, System.Data, and System.Xml. You can find the Aptify objects in your Aptify Windows application's C:\Program Files\Aptify 5.5 directory.
  1. Open the class file.
  2. Add Option Explicit On and Option Strict On at the top of the class file (as described in "Use Option Explicit and Option Strict" on page 71.
  3. Import the Aptify.Framework.BusinessLogic.GenericEntity namespace and/or any other namespaces required for your object.Note: If writing an entity object for an Aptify entity that already has an existing entity object, you should import the namespace for that entity object. For example, if you creating a new entity object sub-class for the OrdersEntity object, import Aptify.Application.OrderEntry.
  4. Define the name for your class (typically this is Public Class [Object Name]).
  5. Add Inherits AptifyGenericEntity below the class name.Note: If writing an entity object for an Aptify entity that already has an existing entity object, you should inherit from that object rather than from AptifyGenericEntity. For example, if you creating a new entity object sub-class for the OrdersEntity object, inherit from OrdersEntity. Entity Object Inheritance
  6. Write code to override the appropriate methods as needed.
  • Refer to the sample code for the RentalAgreementsEntity and ServiceTicketsEntity objects for examples of how to override the AptifyGenericEntity's Save and Validate methods.
  • If writing an entity object for a sub-type entity, Aptify recommends that you override the Validate method rater than the Save method. In this case, the system can notify a user with a pop-up dialog that the validation failed when he or she clicks the OK button on the sub-type form.
  • Also, when working with entity object sub-types, keep in mind that the object can access the parent GE through the Parent property.
  1. Add any new protected and public methods and properties as needed.
  • Note that if defining new interfaces, they should be added to entity object assembly.
  1. Build, test, and sign the assembly. See "Recommendations for Writing Code" on page 68 for details.
  • See "Adding an Entity Plug-In Object to an Entities Record" on page 232 for instructions on how to add the entity object to the Aptify system.Note: If writing code to create or update sub-type records, any save operations should occur for the top-level record and not for the sub-type record directly.
  • No labels

Copyright © 2014-2017 Aptify - Confidential and Proprietary