Example: Requesting Data from an External Financial Application

In SyteLine

In the External Financial Interface Data Request Utility, if the Unit Code 1 field is selected, the ExtFinRequestUnitCd1 task is submitted. This task builds an XML request document similar to this:

<IDORequest> 

 <RequestHeader Type="LoadCollection"> 

  <RequestData> 

   <LoadCollection Name= EXTFIN.ExtFinRequestUnitCd1.unitcd1>



    <Items> 

     <Item ID="unitcd1"> 

     <Property>unit1</Property>



     <Property>description</Property>



     <Property>CreatedBy</Property>



     <Property>UpdatedBy</Property>



     </Item> 

    </Items> 

   </LoadCollection> 

  </RequestData> 

 </RequestHeader> 

</IDORequest>

The XML document is passed to the external financial system as described in Updating SyteLine Data from Data in an External Financial Application.

In the External Financial System

An ASP page on that system should be set up to:

Retrieve the XML request document that was sent by SyteLine.
Know that the "LoadCollection" XML request it received wants to get data from the external financial application and return it to SyteLine.
Extract information about the table and columns requested from the XML (table (view) unitcd1; table columns unit1, description, CreatedBy, and UpdatedBy).
Map that data to the corresponding data in the external financial application:

SL Table.Column ExtFin Table.Column

unitcd1.unit1 ucode1.code

unitcd1.description ucode1.description

(See the note at the end of this section about how to handle the columns CreatedBy and UpdatedBy.)
Extract values from the external financial application's database for the requested columns in table ucode1. This table currently contains two rows:

Code Description

1000 Dept 1000 - Packaging

2000 Dept 2000 - Inspection
Use the mapping information to build an "updatecollection" XML request (see below) to be sent back to SyteLine.
Place the XML request in SyteLine's mailbox.

SL Table.Column	ExtFin Table.Column
unitcd1.unit1	ucode1.code
unitcd1.description	ucode1.description

Code	Description
1000	Dept 1000 - Packaging
2000	Dept 2000 - Inspection

The "UpdateCollection" XML request would be similar to this:

<IDORequest> 

 <RequestHeader UserName="ExtFin User" Password=Password_Value 
 PasswordEncrypted="N" Type="UpdateCollection" New="1" 
 SkipTriggers="0"> 

 <SourceName>EXTFIN</SourceName> 

 <TargetName>SyteLineSite</TargetName>



 <RequestData ObjectType="1"> 

 <UpdateCollection Name="TABLE!unitcd1"> 

  <Items> 

   <Item ItemNo="0" Action="Insert">



    <Property Name="unit1" Modified="Y" 
 xml:space="preserve">1000</Property> 

    <Property Name="description" Modified="Y" 
 xml:space="preserve">Dept 1000 - Packaging</Property>



    <Property Name="CreatedBy" Modified="Y" 
 xml:space="preserve">ExtFin User</Property> 

    <Property Name="UpdatedBy" Modified="Y" 
 xml:space="preserve">ExtFin User</Property> 

   </Item> 

   <Item ItemNo="1" Action="Insert">



    <Property Name="unit1" Modified="Y" 
 xml:space="preserve">2000</Property> 

    <Property Name="description" Modified="Y" 
 xml:space="preserve">Dept 2000 - Inspection</Property>



    <Property Name="CreatedBy" Modified="Y" 
 xml:space="preserve">ExtFin User</Property> 

    <Property Name="UpdatedBy" Modified="Y" 
 xml:space="preserve">ExtFin User</Property> 

   </Item> 

  </Items> 

 </UpdateCollection> 

 </RequestData> 

 </RequestHeader> 

</IDORequest>

NOTE: The values for the properties CreatedBy and UpdatedBy should be set to the value of RequestHeader UserName. In the example above, the value is ExtFin User.

Example: Requesting Data from an External Financial Application

In SyteLine

In the External Financial System

Related Topics