VARA Objects

User-defined VARA objects are placeholders that you can use in executable objects. There are various types of VARA objects. Each type retrieves values from a specific source. When the objects in which they are inserted are executed, the VARA objects are replaced by the values provided by those sources.

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
Variable types: 

• BACKEND
• EXEC
• FILELIST
• MULTI
• SEC
• SEC_SQLI
• SQL
• SQLI
• STATIC
• XML

Defining VARA Objects

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

• General Page

• Variables (all types of VARA objects) and sub pages, if available

  • 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
  • STATIC VARA Objects
  • XML VARA Objects

• Version Management Page

• Documentation Page

Static and Dynamic VARA Objects

Static VARA objects store their values in the object definition. There are two types of static VARA objects:

• STATIC
• XML

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. There are the following types of dynamic VARA objects:

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

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 function o access all or several 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

To read more about the script elements that you can use with VARA objects, see Script Elements for Variables and VARA Objects.

Note: The script editor does not support the editing of VARA objects that contain arbitrary binary values (such as 0x00-0x08, 0x0b, 0x0c, 0x0e-0x19). When you try to save any of these values, the character ? (0x3f) is always saved instead.

See also: