About the IDO Request Interface

For Mongoose applications, the Intelligent Data Object (IDO) layer resides on the Application Server, sitting between the clients and the database. An IDO consists of references to tables in the Application database, definitions of properties, and definitions of specific methods.

IDO definitions are stored as metadata in an Objects database and are accessed through IDO editing forms. Through configurations, application databases are linked with an Objects database and a Forms database. Optionally the objects and forms databases are embedded in the application database.

Developers can create logic associated with IDOs using the Application Event System (AES) and can incorporate .NET IDO extension class code as well; but the Mongoose framework implements the IDO Request Interface for all IDOs. This interface consists of these operations, plus session and metadata operations:

• Load Collection generates and executes SQL to retrieve a collection of rows from the database.
• Update Collection takes a set of rows marked for insert, update, or delete, and generates and executes the appropriate SQL code against the database.
• Invoke allows you to execute a specific method defined for the IDO.

Each of the operations in the IDO Request Interface consists of a request and a response. The caller builds an IDO request and sends it to the IDO runtime engine to be executed. The IDO runtime engine builds and returns a response to the caller containing the results of the requested action.

The Mongoose UI runs entirely by means of the IDO Request Interface, using the IDO Request XML schema described elsewhere in this document, using HTTP(S).

Integrating to IDOs involves understanding this IDO Request Interface and leveraging it using the variety of technologies provided and described in this document (REST, SOAP, .NET class library, XML/HTTP). The REST version of the IDO Request Interface is also provided in Infor’s ION API repository.

For those wishing to understand integrating with IDOs, understanding the IDO Request XML schema is the first step, as that is the native Mongoose interface. The others all map to/from that interface.