Supporting object creation

This topic describes how to use the ARDBC LDAP plug-in to create objects in the directory service.

In this topic:

To support the creation of objects by using the ARDBC LDAP plug-in, you must perform the following tasks:

• Create an BMC Remedy AR System field that is associated with the objectclass attribute. The objectclass attribute is a multivalue attribute.
• Create a field (other than Request ID) associated with dn, and define workflow that assigns a value to it. Although entries in AR System are uniquely identified by the Request ID, objects in a directory service are uniquely identified by the dn (distinguished name) attribute.
• Add any attributes that are required to your AR System form. Many object classes require that you specify values for certain attributes. These are similar to required fields in AR System.

Creating an objectclass field

objectclass is a multivalued attribute that describes all object classes from which an object inherits. Each object class defines a set of attributes. If an object inherits from an object class, it can have values for those attributes. An object can inherit from more than one object class; therefore, an object can have values for all combined attributes.

When you create an object, you must specify all the object classes from which the object inherits. You must add a character field to your form, attach this field to the objectclass attribute, and use the multivalue attribute notation (see Specifying multivalued attributes).

Because all objects associated with an AR System form belong to the same object classes, you can easily set the default value of the field to the object class list. For example, the default value for the object class field associated with an inetorgperson object class is this:

top,person,organizationalperson,inetorgperson

The inetorgperson class inherits from the top, person, and organizationalperson classes.

Because the value does not change for this field, you should make this field Read Only. You might also want to make the field Hidden.

Specifying multivalued attributes

Most attributes in an object class are defined to support one value. Some attributes, however, can have many values. For example, a "person" object includes a "telephone number" attribute that allows you to specify many phone numbers. When this attribute is retrieved, the directory service can return any number of telephone numbers as atomic values.

This differs from typical database applications and AR System, in which a column or field stores only one value. To store two phone numbers in such applications, you must add a new column or field to accommodate the additional data.

To resolve this difference between the two data models, use a special notation when specifying the attribute name in the field properties, Vendor Information, Column input:

attributeName[*separatorString]

Values associated with attributeName are concatenated into a single value in AR System but separated with separatorString. For example, to concatenate all values associated with the telephoneNumber attribute and separate each value with a comma you would enter the following as the attribute name in the Form Properties window:

telephoneNumber[*,]

You could then define workflow to extract, add, or modify values in the comma-separated list of telephone numbers.

Generating and assigning a distinguished name

The distinguished name (dn) attribute is generally assigned a value through workflow. The workflow takes one or more values and assembles the values for the dn attribute. After the dn is assigned at creation, it typically does not change just as the Request ID does not change in an entry under an AR System form.

This is done using a filter that executes on a submit operation. You define the filter to perform a Set Fields operation. For more information about creating filters, see the Developing section.