Case Data Terminology

BOMs

A Business Object Model (BOM) must contain a case class or a class. It can also contain, as required, additional case classes or classes. A BOM can only be created in or added to a Business Data project.

Case Actions

A case action is a special type of business service, associated with a case class, that defines an action a user can perform that is related to a case. The availability of case actions can be restricted based on the current case state and/or the user's permissions. Case actions cannot be made available in terminal states, because terminal states indicate that the case is complete.

Case Classes

A case class is a template for a case object. Case classes must have a single case identifier attribute.

You can create a case object from a case class from within any BPM process application that references that case class.

Unlike local objects, which exist only over the lifespan of a process, case objects are persisted - each case object is stored in the case data tables that represent the case model from which the case object was instantiated.

Case Data Models (or Case Models)

A case data model is the BPM representation of a particular set of case data.

At design-time, a case data model is represented as one or more BOMs in a Business Data project. Cases are modeled as case classes. The project must be deployed to the BPM runtime to make the case data model available to BPM applications.

Case Data Tables

Tables in which case data objects are stored. Case data tables represent the case model from which the case object was instantiated.

Case Identifiers

A case identifier (CID) is a special type of attribute that can be used to uniquely identify an instance of a case class. It can be used in processes, scripts, or API calls to create or to find a particular case.

Case Objects

A case object is an instance of a case class. Data for a case object is stored in the case data tables associated with the case data model to which the case class belongs. You can create case objects from within a process by using a Case Data service task.

Case References

A case reference is a unique reference (or pointer) to a case object, created by BPM when that case object is created.

Creating a case object creates and returns a case reference. That reference can be used by any process to find and manipulate that case object.

You can use a case reference within a process to find, display, update, or delete an existing case object.

Case States

A case state is a special type of attribute, available only on case classes, that can be used to uniquely identify a set of business-specific states that a case can be in. Case states can be used to control the availability of case actions to users.

Note: Each case class must have one or more terminal case states, which indicate that a case is complete and can be deleted. When a case enters a terminal state, it is no longer visible in the process. At runtime, while creating a case, the case state must be assigned some value.

Case Summary Attributes

A case summary is a specified subset of the attributes defined for a case class. The case summary defines the initial set of information that is returned about a case object when that object is returned as part of a search result. When a user performs a search on a case class, the case summary information is displayed for each matching case object.

Searchable Attributes

A searchable attribute is one that is designed to be used in case data search criteria. Searchable attributes can be used in process scripts or BPM public API calls to find cases that match specified attribute values.