Bind Attributes

Bind Attributes are relevant only for the update operation. They specify binding between source and target attributes, that is how to find corresponding target objects on the basis of data in source objects.

For example, the mapping captured by the image in 'Object Mapping Editor' defines that objects of the KSTELLEN object type will serve as source of data for creation or update of objects of the Person object type.

Neither source nor target condition has been specified which means that:

• all KSTELLEN objects will be considered as possible source of data for the creation or update (source condition)
• all Person objects will be considered as possible targets of the update (target condition)

However, which Person objects will actually get updated is determined by 'Bind attributes'. In our example, only 'Person' objects for which a corresponding 'KSTELLEN' object is found will be updated. The correspondence is defined by the Bind attributes.

Namely:

• value of the 'kst' attribute of 'KSTELLEN' object must be the same as value of the 'persNo' attribute of 'Person'

  AND

• value of the 'ksvname' attribute of 'KSTELLEN' object must be the same as value of the 'firstname' attribute of 'Person'

  AND

• value of the 'verantw' attribute of 'KSTELLEN' object must be the same as value of the 'lastname' attribute of 'Person'

Only the 'Person' objects for which a corresponding 'KSTELLEN' object fulfilling the above described criteria exists will be updated.

If our example mapping was of the 'Update' type only, this update would be the only operation performed. Because our mapping is of the 'Update / Create' type, the following will happen:

• the above described update of selected 'Person' objects will be performed
• new 'Person' objects will be created out of 'KSTELLEN' objects which do not have their 'Person' counterparts as yet.

Note that relation attributes can also be used to specify the bind attributes. For instance in the example capture below we are considering 'LEISTDAT' as source object type and 'Planpaysched' as the target object type. The update will be performed only if value of the 'ekst' attribute of 'LEISTDAT' (source) is the same as value of the 'costcenterNo' attribute of the cost center ('costcenter') linked with the budget account ('budget1') linked with the corresponding plan item ('Planpaysched')