Documents

A data flow is a sequence of activities that send or receive documents. Data flows are event-driven. When a document is published by an application, the next step in the flow is triggered. Each flow starts and ends with one or more connection points. Connection points can be reused in multiple data flows, and the same connection point can be used multiple times in a data flow.

In ION Connect these types of documents exist:

  • Business Object Documents (BODs)

    BOD is a standard format defined by Open Application Group (www.oagi.org).

    Standard Infor BODs are available out of the box in the registry that is delivered with ION. You can define your own BODs in the registry as well.

    For a basic description about the BOD structure see "Business Object Document (BOD)" later in this topic.

    For more specific information, see the Infor ION Development Guide

  • JSON documents

    JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is an open-standard lightweight data-interchange file format.

    No standard JSON documents are delivered with ION. You can import a custom JSON document schema to the registry. You can automatically generate a JSON document schema and add it to the registry in some connection points.

  • DSV documents

    DSV (delimiter-separated values) documents store tabular data in plain text. Each row in a delimited file contains one data record. Each record contains one or more fields, that are separated by a delimiter. The delimiter can be any character, but most commonly used are comma or tab.

    No standard DSV documents are delivered with ION. You can import a custom DSV document schema to the registry.

  • ANY documents.

    ANY document is defined just by its name. Content structure is not defined or unknown. Some examples for usage of ANY documents are: CSV files, unstructured text, xls, pdf, jpeg, etc.

Business Object Document (BOD)

A BOD (business object document) is a message that is sent from an application to one or more other applications. This type of message informs an application of a change to a business object that took place in another application, or requests an application to update a business object.

A BOD contains two parts: a noun and a verb.

Nouns

A noun is a set of business data contained in a BOD. The noun represents the properties of one business object. Examples of nouns are SalesOrder, Item, and BusinessPartner. In ION, a noun is called an application document.

A BOD definition contains one noun definition. A message can contain multiple instances of the same noun definition. For example, a BOD can contain multiple SalesOrders, but it cannot contain SalesOrders and PurchaseOrders at the same time. However, usually a BOD will only contain one noun instance.

Verbs

The verb describes the action that is requested for the noun. This table shows the request verbs supported by Infor:

Request verb Description
Sync A synchronization message containing changes that took place to a business object. A Sync message is sent by the owner of the data and can be delivered to any other application for which this information is relevant.
Process A request to create a business object or to apply changes to an existing business object. A Process message is sent from any application to the application that owns the data. The owner will send an Acknowledge message in response to the Process request. The loaded document can be refused.
Get A request to get the details for a business object. A Get message is sent to the owner of the data. The owner will send a Show message in response to the Get request.
Load The Load verb is used when a document is created by an application that will not be the owner. A Load message is sent to the owner of the data. The loaded document cannot be refused.
Post
Note: This verb is deprecated but still supported for compatibility.
The Post verb is similar to the Process verb, but it does not trigger the creation of an Acknowledge message.
Update The Update verb is used when data is changed by an application that does not own the data. The Update verb is similar to the Load verb, in the sense that it must be accepted by the owner. Namely, the Update message informs the owner of the data that an event took place and what data was changed by the event.

Verbs are also used for response messages. The response verbs supported by Infor are shown in this table:

Response verb Description
Acknowledge An Acknowledge response is sent in reply to a Process request. An Acknowledge response indicates whether the object to be processed was accepted, modified, or rejected.
Show A Show response is sent in reply to a Get request.

A Show message can also be sent without a preceding Get request. For example, an application can send Show messages to load new applications with initial data

Confirm A Confirm verb is used when a failure occurs. A Confirm verb is processed within ION and is not routed to any other application. The Confirm verb is used only for the BOD noun. The ConfirmBOD contains a copy of the original message, to enable an ION administrator to resubmit the same message after fixing the cause of the problem.

Messages

In addition to the actual document content, the messages handled by ION contain additional technical details, such as the address of the sender. Where required, additional details are provided later in this guide.