User-Defined VARA Objects

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User-defined VARA objects are powerful dynamic execution tools. They are placeholders for values that they retrieve from different sources, depending on the type of VARA object. You assign VARAs to executable objects. When those executable objects are processed, the VARAs are replaced by their values. As a developer and object designer you create and use VARA objects in the attributes and scripts of executable objects. As an administrator user, you create VARA objects in Client 0 that can be used by other users in other Clients.

Object class: Active object

Object type/Short form: VARA

This page includes the following:

Types of VARA Objects

There are two types of VARA objects: Static and Dynamic.

Understanding Static VARA Objects

Static VARA objects store values permanently until they are modified or deleted explicitly. You define the values of Static VARA objects manually. The values of the Static VARA objects are stored in the Automation Engine database. There are two sub-types of Static VARAs:

  • STATIC VARA Objects

  • XML VARA Objects

Understanding Dynamic VARA Objects

Dynamic VARA objects do not store their values in the object definition. They retrieve their values from a specific data source, which is different for each VARA object type. As opposed to Static VARA objects, their values are not stored in the Automation Engine database. Instead, when accessing their content, Automic Automation does some background processing, depending on the type of VARA object, to determine the values. The following VARA objects are dynamic:

  • BACKEND VARA Objects
  • EXEC VARA Objects
  • FILELIST VARA Objects
  • MULTI VARA Objects
  • SEC_SQL VARA Objects
  • SEC_SQLI VARA Objects
  • SQL VARA Objects
  • SQLI VARA Objects

Note: The fields on the Variable page depend on the variable type selected when the variable was created. You cannot change the type at a later time.

VARA Objects and Scripts

The Automation Engine scripting language provides script elements that let you perform many operations with VARA objects. This list provides links to some of the most common ones:

  • GET_VAR

    Use this script function to populate the attributes of objects with VARA objects

  • PREP_PROCESS_VAR and PREP_PROCESS_VAR_XML

    Use this script function to access all or some of the entries of a VARA object and to prepare the processing of a data sequence

  • CREATE_OBJECT

    Use this script function to create a STATIC VARA object

  • MODIFY_OBJECT

    Use this script function to modify a STATIC VARA object

  • REMOVE_OBJECT

    Use this script function to delete a VARA object

More Information:

Defining VARA Objects

  1. In the Process Assembly perspective click Add Object. On the Add Object dialog, select Variable (VARA) > <type of VARA object>. For information on how to add objects, see Adding Objects.

    A VARA object definition is made up of the following pages:

    Note: You can also create VARA objects directly from the Using AWI Combo Boxes that serve to select objects.

  2. On the Object Name dialog enter the name of the new object. Choose it carefully. For more information, see Best Practices: Naming Conventions.

  3. Click OK to open the object definition pages. For details about how to configure the various types of VARA object, see:

Usage

Watch this video to learn how to use STATIC and XML VARA objects to configure Workflows: Watch the Video: Configuring Workflows with VARA objects

See also: