Designing processes - EMC Community Network

Creating the User Interface
value). While these messages may be helpful to the user, they are not as helpful as messages created
specifically for a template, tailored to the data requirement for that template.
Data adaptors
Some general guidelines for using adaptors are:
• Do not use too many different adaptors as it can impede performance. You can use one data source
adapter to populate multiple fields at once by populating off one database table with multiple
columns. This way, the adaptor only runs once.
• Keep adaptors simple and lightweight and keep the execution time of data source adaptors as
short as possible.
• Do not perform high latency calls within data source adaptors, such as long-running queries or slow
web service invocations, as these calls can greatly impede performance of the UI.
• If you plan to use more than one adaptor, concentrate on getting one adaptor to work before
creating another.
• When using a data source adaptor, make sure that the input is required and that the output is
repeating.
• When creating a custom data source adaptor, you have a choice of creating it as a class or
service-based business object (SBO). If you create it as a class first it is much easier to validate and
debug the adaptor. You can then convert the adaptor to an SBO if desired.
The following table provides information on which templates or controls each adapter can be used
with, guidelines for how best to use each type of adaptor, and important limitations.
Table 4
Adaptor Types and Uses
Adaptor Type
Item Initializer
Available Templates
or Controls
Not available on folder
information, process
parameter, or task
templates
Available on these
controls: Text Field,
RichText, Number Field,
Date Field, DateTime
Field, CheckBox,
CheckBox Group,
Radio Button Group,
ListBox, Dropdown
List, Readonly Table,
Bar Codes, Slider,
Embedded Form, and
Filter
Best Uses/Limitations
Use this adaptor if you want a value entered automatically in
a field when the template instance is created.
The out-of-the-box item initializer is configured to enter the
current date/time in a date/time field. To use your own logic,
create a custom initializer.
When using an item initializer for an integer value in a
number field, also specify a default value for the field.
On a document view template, the initialization will only
execute when the document view is used while importing
documents in TaskSpace.
EMC Documentum xCelerated Composition Platform Version 1.6 Best Practices Guide 75