Database Concepts Overview
Database concepts are TIBCO BusinessEvents concepts that you create by mapping tables or views from a database to TIBCO BusinessEvents concepts.
One table or view maps to one TIBCO BusinessEvents database concept definition. A row in the table or view maps to one database concept instance. A column in a table or view gets mapped to a concept property.
Database concepts are created using the Database Import utility. This utility introspects the specified database schema and generates TIBCO BusinessEvents concepts. You can choose which tables or views to import.
When you import from a database, you can optionally generate relationships between database concepts based on database constraints. The utility imports any additional database entities that were not in the original selection but that must be imported because they have a relationship to the selected subset of entities.
A separate utility enables you to import domain models for database concepts from a source database column. You can then associate the domain model with the appropriate database concept.
Differences from Ordinary Concepts
The following are the differences between the database concepts and ordinary concepts:
- Assertion into Rete Network: Database concept instances returned by database query functions are not asserted into the Rete network automatically. You must assert them explicitly. To do so, use the RDBMS function Database.assertDBInstance().
- History: Database concept properties do not support history tracking.
Minimum Permissions Required
Metadata access rights are required, because concepts and events are created using table metadata.
Handling of Null Value Properties
To work with external databases, concept instances are serialized to XML. By default, when concept instance objects are serialized to XML, properties with null values are excluded. You can control handling of null properties in the XML representation of serialized concepts. Note that for numeric datatypes, some special handling may be required for interoperability. See the section Handling Null Properties in TIBCO BusinessEvents Developer’s Guide for details.
- Table Constraints and Concept Relationships
When you import tables, optionally, you can import database constraints, that is, relationships between tables. - Prerequisites for Importing Database Tables or Views
Setup the environment and resources before using the database import utility. - Importing Database Tables or Views With the DB Import Utility
The DB Import utility allows you to connect to a database and import schemas. - Importing Selected Database Tables
By default, the DB Import utility imports all the schemas along with the tables within the schemas. Alternatively you can choose which tables to import. - Importing Domain Model Information for a Database Concept
Domain models make data entry more reliable. They are used in decision tables, available in TIBCO BusinessEvents Decision Manager.