Example: Requesting Data from an External Financial Application

In the ERP

In the External Financial Interface Data Request Utility, if the Unit Code 1 field is selected, the ExtFinRequestUnitCd1 task is submitted. This task builds an XML request document similar to this:

<IDORequest>

 <RequestHeader Type="LoadCollection">

  <RequestData>

   <LoadCollection Name= EXTFIN.ExtFinRequestUnitCd1.unitcd1>

style="clear: none;" />

    <Items>

     <Item ID="unitcd1">

     <Property>unit1</Property>

style="clear: none;" />

     <Property>description</Property>

style="clear: none;" />

     <Property>CreatedBy</Property>

style="clear: none;" />

     <Property>UpdatedBy</Property>

style="clear: none;" />

     </Item>

    </Items>

   </LoadCollection>

  </RequestData>

 </RequestHeader>

</IDORequest>

The XML document is passed to the external financial system as described in Updating SyteLine Data from Data in an External Financial Application.

In the External Financial System

An ASP page on that system should be set up to:

• Retrieve the XML request document that was sent by SyteLine.
• Know that the "LoadCollection" XML request it received wants to get data from the external financial application and return it to SyteLine.
• Extract information about the table and columns requested from the XML (table (view) unitcd1; table columns unit1, description, CreatedBy, and UpdatedBy).
• Map that data to the corresponding data in the external financial application:

  Table.Column	ExtFin Table.Column
  unitcd1.unit1	ucode1.code
  unitcd1.description	ucode1.description

  (See the note at the end of this section about how to handle the columns CreatedBy and UpdatedBy.)
• Extract values from the external financial application's database for the requested columns in table ucode1. This table currently contains two rows:

  Code	Description
  1000	Dept 1000 - Packaging
  2000	Dept 2000 - Inspection

• Use the mapping information to build an "updatecollection" XML request (see below) to be sent back to SyteLine.
• Place the XML request in SyteLine's mailbox.

The "UpdateCollection" XML request would be similar to this:

<IDORequest>

 <RequestHeader UserName="ExtFin User" Password=Password_Value PasswordEncrypted="N" Type="UpdateCollection" New="1" SkipTriggers="0">

 <SourceName>EXTFIN</SourceName>

 <TargetName>SyteLineSite</TargetName>

style="clear: none;" />

 <RequestData ObjectType="1">

 <UpdateCollection Name="TABLE!unitcd1">

  <Items>

   <Item ItemNo="0" Action="Insert">

style="clear: none;" />

    <Property Name="unit1" Modified="Y" xml:space="preserve">1000</Property>

    <Property Name="description" Modified="Y" xml:space="preserve">Dept 1000 - Packaging</Property>

style="clear: none;" />

    <Property Name="CreatedBy" Modified="Y" xml:space="preserve">ExtFin User</Property>

    <Property Name="UpdatedBy" Modified="Y" xml:space="preserve">ExtFin User</Property>

   </Item>

   <Item ItemNo="1" Action="Insert">

style="clear: none;" />

    <Property Name="unit1" Modified="Y" xml:space="preserve">2000</Property>

    <Property Name="description" Modified="Y" xml:space="preserve">Dept 2000 - Inspection</Property>

style="clear: none;" />

    <Property Name="CreatedBy" Modified="Y" xml:space="preserve">ExtFin User</Property>

    <Property Name="UpdatedBy" Modified="Y" xml:space="preserve">ExtFin User</Property>

   </Item>

  </Items>

 </UpdateCollection>

 </RequestData>

 </RequestHeader>

</IDORequest>