CAM templates and TWIST documents

["David RR Webber \(XML\)" <david@drrw.info>]

Dale,

 

Here's my thoughts on this - since at first blush this looks exactly the use case we have had in mind for mapping between conceptual business documents in the BPSS to physical instance uses via a CAM template reference.

 

The document CAM template is parameter aware - so the BPSS variable can also be used to denote what specific transaction handling is needed - and you can declare multiple structure definitions in the CAM template, and then select the one you need conditionally.

 

So stepping through this the CAM template components and linkage would be:

 

1) Declare one or more parameter variables in the CAM template header

    (the actual value(s) would be passed to the CAM processor by the BPSS at runtime)

 

2) Declare one or more structure instances in the CAM template. 

    (these are best done as <include> from external definition sets)

 

3) When CAM runs it will match the parameter passed to the structure instance in the template to be used

 

4) Alternatively you can make the linkage here dynamic - so either the XPath to a structure item can be checked to test which structure instance is being transacted ( therefore external parameters not needed) - or the CAM template can be directly associated by the XML instance.

 

5) A further alternate is to have one structure definition - but select / deselect parts of the structure based on rules / parameters. 

  So for example: if(TWIST transaction) is export - customs-segments required else remove customs-segments.

The bottom line here is that the CAM template gives you a tremendous amount of flexibility in mapping between the TWIST document conceptual use pattern, and the physical handling needed of the XML itself.

 

From the BPSS stance - you simply provide the coupling to the CAM template - and we've provided the "hooks" in BPSS to enable that - and then the CAM template provides the physical transaction mapping.

 

Hope that helps.

 

DW

 

"The way to be is to do" - Confucius (551-472 B.C.)