Creating a Lotus Workforce Management model is the second step in creating self-service accelerator portlets. This demonstration shows you how to assemble builders into a model that reads and updates an SAP infotype.
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Creating a model is the second step in working with the Lotus Workforce Management 6.1 feature set in the IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory Designer development environment.
The model in this demonstration uses three Lotus Workforce Management builders and two WebSphere Portlet Factory builders. The Lotus Workforce Management builders are as follows: the LWM Base builder, the SAP Infotype builder, and the SAP View and Form builder. The WebSphere Portlet Factory builders are as follows: the Portlet Adapter builder, and the Data Hierarchy Modifier builder.
The Lotus Workforce Management builders provide the core functionality for the resulting portlet. The WebSphere Portlet Factory builders in this model all provide enhancements to the resulting portlet.
An Empty model has no builder calls. You must add all the necessary application functionality.
Ensure that the name you give the model conforms to the Java class naming convention so that the first letter of each word begins with an uppercase letter. Model names cannot contain spaces, so separate words using an underscore character.
Models must be stored in directories under the IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory
WEB-INF/models directory.
The first Lotus Workforce Management builder you add to this model is the LWM Base builder. In this model, the LWM Base builder makes the SAP user information available as a method object. After you add an SAP Infotype builder to the model, you can select this method object to provide the employee personnel number at runtime.
The second Lotus Workforce Management builder you add this model is the SAP Infotype builder. In this model, the SAP Infotype builder interacts with the custom Lotus Workforce Management Advanced Business Application Programming, or ABAP, code. The SAP Infotype builder uses the custom Remote Function Calls to extract data from an SAP system. The SAP Infotype builder also lets you select certain operations, such as Create, Read, Update, and Delete, that the employees can perform with the portlet.
One of the most intuitive features of the SAP Infotype builder is that you can search for an infotype using a description. This feature simplifies the process of using the builder by eliminating the need to know specific infotype codes.
In this model, select the
Read and
Update operations to allow employees to see their personal information and be able to change it.
Specify the method object that the LWM Base builder provides so the employee can only access their information from an SAP system and not another employee's information.
The third Lotus Workforce Management builder you add to this model is the SAP View and Form builder. The SAP View and Form builder adds user interface pages to the SAP Infotype builder. The SAP View and Form builder provides a view page, an input page, an update page, and an update error page that you can choose to allow employees to more efficiently interact with portlets that you create with the SAP Infotype builder.
In the
View Data Operation field, enter the
Read data service operation of the SAP Infotype builder. The
Read data service operation provides the variable that displays on the view page in the finished portlet.
The
View Page HTML field is where you specify an HTML page that is used as the basis for the view page. In this model, you can use the default page.
In the
Row Details Support section, select
Create Link to Details to add row details support. A column in the view page links to the details page in the finished portlet. In the
Details Link Column, choose which column you would like to become the link to the details page. In this model, specify the SAP personnel number so that employees can click their personnel number to view the details page.
In the
Update Page Support section, select
Create Update Page to add an update page that employees can access to update their personal information. In the
Update Method field, enter the
Update data service operation of the SAP Infotype builder. The
Update data service operation provides the variable that displays on the update page in the finished portlet.
Select
Enable Update Validation to allow automatic validation using the
DataService Schema. The schema contains information on required fields and data type restrictions to ensure that employees enter all required information correctly before updating.
In the
Advanced section, select
Generate Main to to automatically generate a
Main action that triggers the execution of the model and displays the view page after the model runs.
Now that the Lotus Workforce Management builder calls are specified in the model, you should add two WebSphere Portlet Factory builders to enhance the appearance of the final portlet.
Select a Portlet Adapter builder to set a portlet title and description.
Specify a
Portlet Title that identifies the portlet when you add it to a page in the portal. The
Portlet Title is also used when other portlets communicate directly with this portlet.
Enter any other properties for this portlet such as keywords or description.
Select a Data Hierarchy Modifier builder to specify which fields you want to display in the finished portlet. You can also use the Data Hierarchy Modifier builder to rearrange and order the fields in the portlet.
Select the
Update Page,
View Page, and
Details Page that the LWM View and Form builder provides. Modify the way you would like the fields to display in the finished portlet.
You are now ready to proceed to the next demonstration that shows you the third, and last, step in creating a self-service accelerator portlet,
Deploying a portlet.