OData Insert Activity¶

Introduction¶

An OData Insert activity, using its OData connection, inserts object data into an OData endpoint, and is intended to be used as a target to consume data in an operation.

Create an OData Insert Activity¶

An instance of an OData Insert activity is created from an OData connection using its Insert activity type.

To create an instance of an activity, drag the activity type to the design canvas or copy the activity type and paste it on the design canvas. For details, see Creating an Activity Instance in Component Reuse.

An existing OData Insert activity can be edited from these locations:

• The design canvas (see Component Actions Menu in Design Canvas).
• The project pane's Components tab (see Component Actions Menu in Project Pane Components Tab).

Configure an OData Insert Activity¶

Follow these steps to configure an OData Insert activity:

• Step 1: Enter a Name and Specify Settings
  Provide a name for the activity and select the type of object to insert. Specify any necessary HTTP headers and if the activity should continue on error.

• Step 2: Select Child Objects
  Select child object classes to insert based on the object class selected in the previous step.

• Step 3: Review the Data Schemas
  Any request or response schemas generated from the endpoint are displayed.

Step 1: Enter a Name and Specify Settings¶

In this step, provide a name for the activity and select the type of object to insert. Specify any necessary HTTP headers and if the activity should continue on error. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Name: Enter a name to identify the activity. The name must be unique for each OData Insert activity and must not contain forward slashes (/) or colons (:).

• Select Object: This section displays object classes available in the OData endpoint.

  • Selected Object: After an object class is selected, it is listed here.

  • Search: Enter any part of the object name into the search box to filter the list of objects. The search is not case-sensitive. If objects are already displayed within the table, the table results are filtered in real time with each keystroke. To reload objects from the endpoint when searching, enter search criteria and then refresh, as described below.

  • Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to reload object classes from the OData endpoint. This may be useful if OData endpoint's schema has been updated to support new types of objects. This action refreshes all metadata used to build the table of objects displayed in the configuration.

  • Selecting an Object: Within the table, click anywhere on a row to select an object class. Only one object class can be selected. The information available for each object is fetched from the OData endpoint:

    • Name: The object class name from the OData endpoint.

    • Description: The object class description from the OData endpoint.

  Tip

  If the table does not populate with available object classes, the OData connection may not be successful. Ensure you are connected by reopening the connection and retesting the credentials.

• Advanced HTTP Properties: Define HTTP headers for the insert. The OData protocol accepts standard HTTP headers defined in RFC 2616 (Section 14) as well as any custom headers specific to the endpoint. Click the add icon to add a header to the table below and enter a key-value pair for each request parameter.

  To save the row, click the submit icon in the rightmost column.

  To edit or delete a single row, hover over the rightmost column and use the edit icon or delete icon .

  To delete all rows, click Clear All.

  Note

  Custom headers must be configured in the endpoint for it to accept them as part of this request. If you are using Microsoft Azure to manage your OData endpoint, see Microsoft's documentation on Custom Headers in Accessing Endpoints That Require Authentication.

  Important

  Fields in the Advanced HTTP Properties table display the variable icon only in edit mode. For these fields' variable values to be populated at runtime, the agent version must be at least 10.75 / 11.13.

• Continue on Error: Select to continue the activity execution if an error is encountered for a dataset in a batch request. If any errors are encountered, they are written to the operation log. It is selected by default.

• Save & Exit: If enabled, click to save the configuration for this step and close the activity configuration.

• Next: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and continue to the next step. The configuration will not be saved until you click the Finished button on the last step.

• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Step 2: Select Child Objects¶

In this step, select the child object classes to insert based on the object class selected in the previous step. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Select Child Objects: This section is used to select child object classes to insert. This section is optional and can be skipped by selecting Next.

  • Available Child Objects: This column displays child object classes to selects from.

    • Search: Enter any part of the child object class name into the search box to filter the list of child object classes. The search is not case-sensitive. If object classes are already displayed within the table, the table results are filtered in real time with each keystroke. To reload child object classes from the endpoint when searching, enter search criteria and then refresh, as described below.

    • Refresh: Click the refresh icon to reload child object classes from the OData endpoint. This may be useful if you have recently added child object classes to the OData endpoint.

    • Adding a Child Object: Within the column, click anywhere on a row to select one or more child object classes. Then click the add icon to add selected classes to the Selected Child Objects column:

  

  • Selected Child Objects: This column displays selected child object classes.

    • Removing a Child Object: Within the column, click anywhere on a row to select one or more child object classes. Then click the remove icon to return selected classes to the Available Child Objects column:

  

• Back: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and return to the previous step.

• Next: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and continue to the next step. The configuration will not be saved until you click the Finished button on the last step.

• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Step 3: Review the Data Schemas¶

The request and response schemas generated from the endpoint are displayed. Each user interface element of this step is described below.

• Data Schemas: These data schemas are inherited by adjacent transformations and are displayed again during transformation mapping.

  Note

  Data supplied in a transformation takes precedence over the activity configuration.

  • Request:

    Request Schema Field/Node	Description
    insertrequest	Request to insert an object (entity)
    request	Node representing the insert request
    item	Node representing the request items
    Object List	Node representing the object list (entity set) to insert into; for example, the Airline node
    Object Fields ...	Fields specific to the object class (entity type) of objects in the object list; for example, the AirlineCode and Name fields

  • Response:

    Response Schema Field/Node	Description
    insertresponse	Response from inserting an object (entity)
    response	Node representing the insert response
    item	Node representing the response items
    Object List	Node representing the object list (entity set) inserted into; for example, the Airline node
    Object Fields ...	Fields specific to the object class (entity type) of objects in the object list; for example, the AirlineCode and Name fields
    _odata.etag	String of the OData annotation field with a value that can be used in a subsequent request to determine if the value of the object has changed
    _odata.context	String of the OData annotation field with a URL containing the location of the queried resource
    error	Node representing error details from the insert
    code	String of the code associated with the error
    message	String of the message associated with the error

  The OData connector uses the Apache Olingo OData 4.0 Java library. Refer to the library documentation for additional information on how the OData protocol is supported. General information regarding the OData protocol is also available at OData's documentation site.

• Refresh: Click the refresh icon or the word Refresh to regenerate schemas from the OData endpoint. This action also regenerates a schema in other locations throughout the project where the same schema is referenced, such as in an adjacent transformation.

• Back: Click to temporarily store the configuration for this step and return to the previous step.

• Finished: Click to save the configuration for all steps and close the activity configuration.

• Discard Changes: After making changes, click to close the configuration without saving changes made to any step. A message asks you to confirm that you want to discard changes.

Next Steps¶

After configuring an OData Insert activity, complete the configuration of the operation by adding and configuring other activities, transformations, or scripts as operation steps. You can also configure the operation settings, which include the ability to chain operations together that are in the same or different workflows.

Menu actions for an activity are accessible from the project pane and the design canvas. For details, see Activity Actions Menu in Connector Basics.

OData Insert activities can be used as a target with these operation patterns:

• Transformation Pattern
• Two-transformation Pattern (as the first or second target)

To use the activity with scripting functions, write the data to a temporary location and then use that temporary location in the scripting function.

When ready, deploy and run the operation and validate behavior by checking the operation logs.