Association Element in MethodInstances (BDCMetadata Schema)

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

Namespace: https://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2007/BusinessDataCatalog

Schema: BDCMetadata

The Association element links related external content types within a system. For example, a customer is associated with a sales order in the AdventureWorks system: a customer makes sales orders. An Association holds pointers to the source and destination external content types and a pointer to the business logic (a MethodInstance object) that allows a client to get the destination external content type from the source external content type. The traversal of an Association is a method call on the external system.

In the BDC Model, the Association logic (MethodInstance) can be on any external content type, either source or destination or an unrelated external content type, provided the destination external content type belongs to the LobSystem that contains the Association method instance.

Warning

Note that when using SharePoint Designer 2010, you must create the Association operation on the destination external content type. This is a requirement of SharePoint Designer and modeling it the other way (on the source or another external content type) will not work.

BDC also supports multiple source external content type scenarios and one destination external content type scenario.

An Association method instance contains slots for the identifier values of the SourceEntity instance, and a slot for the identifier values of the DestinationEntity instances. Therefore, you must tag enough input TypeDescriptor objects with identifiers corresponding to each identifier of each external content type that is a source in the Association in the Association method. The IdentifierName attribute on an input TypeDescriptor object signals BDC to insert the identifier value of the EntityInstance of relevance before executing the method. For example, in an AssociationMethodInstance, the user has probably provided the identifier values for the source EntityInstance that he or she wants to retrieve. BDC will insert that value into this slot after fully instantiating this parameter by using all the default values.

BDC also supports Foreign Key pseudo-associations. Foreign Key pseudo-associations are not first-class associations. Consider a Web method that returns Customer, and that one of the fields of a Customer is the Key to the Address of the Customer. Also consider another web method that returns Address given its key. A metadata modeller may use this method as a Customer-Address Association method (possibly along with a Specific Finder of Address). Foreign key pseudo associations see that the target of this method is an Address, fetch the key of Address from the Returned Customer and then call this association Method to return the Address automatically.

Warning

Note that although BDC Model supports foreign key pseudo-associations, SharePoint Designer 2010 does not. Therefore, you cannot model foreign key pseudo-associations using SharePoint Designer.

The Association element accepts the following property.

Important

Properties are case-sensitive.

Properties

Property	Type	Description	Required	Default Value	Limits/Accepted Values
HideOnProfilePage	System.Boolean	Specifies whether the related external content type should be added to the profile page of the master external content type.	Optional

<Association Type = "String" Default = "Boolean" ReturnParameterName = "String" ReturnTypeDescriptorName = "String" ReturnTypeDescriptorLevel = "Integer" Name = "String" DefaultDisplayName = "String" IsCached = "Boolean"> </Association>

Attributes and Elements

The following sections describe attributes, child elements, and parent elements.

Attributes

Attribute	Description
Type	Required. The MethodInstanceType that specifies the type of the Association. The following table lists the possible values for this attribute. Value Description AssociationNavigator The MethodInstance is an AssociationNavigator. Associator The MethodInstance is an Associator. Disassociator The MethodInstance is a Disassociator. BulkAssociatedIdEnumerator The MethodInstance is a BulkAssociatedIdEnumerator. BulkAssociationNavigator The MethodInstance is a BulkAssociationNavigator.
Default	Optional. Specifies whether the Association is the default among all Associations sharing its type within the containing external content type. If set to true, the Association is the default among all Associations sharing its type within the containing external content type. If set to false, the Association is not the default among all Associations sharing its type within the containing external content type. Default value: false Attribute type: Boolean
ReturnParameterName	Optional. The name of the parameter that contains the ReturnTypeDescriptor of the Association. The Direction attribute of the parameter must contain a value of either "Out", "InOut, or "Return". Attribute type: String
ReturnTypeDescriptorName	Optional. This has been deprecated. Use the ReturnTypeDescriptorPath instead. Attribute type: String
ReturnTypeDescriptorLevel	Optional. This has been deprecated. Use the ReturnTypeDescriptorPath instead. Attribute type: Integer
ReturnTypeDescriptorPath	Optional. The dotted path of the TypeDescriptor of the Association. Attribute type: String
Name	Required. The name of the Association. Attribute type: String
DefaultDisplayName	Optional. The default display name for the Association. Attribute type: String
IsCached	Optional. Specifies whether this Association is frequently used. Default value: true Attribute type: Boolean

Child Elements

Element	Description
LocalizedDisplayNames Element in MetadataObject (BDCMetadata Schema)	The LocalizedDisplayNames element specifies a list of localized names for the Association.
Properties Element in MetadataObject (BDCMetadata Schema)	The Properties element specifies the properties of the Association.
AccessControlList Element (BDCMetadata Schema)	The AccessControlList element specifies a set of access rights for the Association.
SourceEntity Element in Association (BDCMetadata Schema)	The SourceEntity element specifies the source external content type in the association.
DestinationEntity Element in Association (BDCMetadata Schema)	The DestinationEntity element specifies the destination external content type in the Association.

Parent Elements

Element	Description
MethodInstances Element in Method (BDCMetadata Schema)	The MethodInstances element that contains the Association.