Profile call

In the Profile name parameter, the profile to be called must be identified by a static direct entry or by selecting an entry from the drop-down list activated via 'Auto-complete'.

►NOTE◄ In contrast to calling profiles in the context of forms, access control for profiles based on Profile securities is not guaranteed. All available profiles can be selected and executed.

The Fail on profile error? option decides how event processing reacts to an error while executing the profile:

• If the Fail on profile error? option is selected, then an error that occurs or is triggered during a profile execution will result in a ProcessException in the processing context of the value resolver. Within Event handling, this always causes a rollback for the current transaction in addition to the output of an error message, unless errors are specifically handled in the context of the value resolver ((Try/Catch actor) or ignored across the board (e.g. when defining attachments in a send mail event action).

• If the Fail on profile error? option is not selected (default), then the occurrence or triggering of an error in the course of profile execution does not lead to a cancellation.

• In the event of an error, the return value of the value resolver depends on the origin of the error (see notes on the right) and the selection for the options Parse result and Use as string.

Notes on error handling:

• If a ProcessException occurs or is triggered in the course of a profile call, the error message is always 'Failed to call Profile: (...)'. Details about the cause of the error can be found in the generated error report under 'Caused by (...)'.

• The error report for a ProcessException can optionally be downloaded in the message dialog or displayed by clicking on 'More' and evaluated with a browser search, if necessary.

Notes on error handling:

• Errors during profile execution are ignored. However, a ProcessException (possibly with rollback) may occur, e.g. if the addressed profile does not exist.

• If, according to the configuration, a 'Content' is expected as a return value of the value resolver (the options Parse result and Use as string not selected), the value resolver returns an 'empty' data object of this type in the event of errors, whose fields contain the value null ('no value') but not a total of 'no value' (null). A Default value resolver can therefore only be used with reference to a field (e.g. body) to assign a default return value for the error case. If the Use as string option is selected, the value resolver returns the string conversion of the body value by default, so that 'no value' (null) is returned in case of error. Then a Default value resolver takes effect even without explicit reference to a field of the 'Content' object.

• If an 'object' is expected as a return value (option Parse result is selected), then the type of the return value depends on how the error occurred during profile execution:

  • If an error defined for Lobster Data Platform / Integration occurs in one of the phases when executing the profile, or if a function such as throw exception is executed in the mapping, then a specific error object is returned to Lobster Data Platform / Orchestration. Lobster Data Platform / Orchestration identifies this error type after parsing via an entityClass variable. However, a specific Check type is not supported for the object types in question.

  • However, a profile cancellation can also be triggered by assigning the XML structure of an 'error response' object (ErrorResponse) to the VAR_ERROR_RESPONSE profile variable. Then the parser in the value resolver returns this object, which can be determined by Check type.

The option Parse result specifies that a text in XML format is expected as the return value of the profile, which can be interpreted in Lobster Data Platform / Orchestration as the 'server XML' of an object.

• Provided that the input data for the profile refers to an entity defined in Lobster Data Platform / Orchestration, the target structure of the profile can be interpreted as an update for the volatile data of this entity. As shown in the above table under 'Special use case', an update can be used with and without selecting the Parse result option. However, the Parse result option is typically selected so that the updated entity is immediately available as the return value of the value resolver.

• If the Parse result option is not selected (default), then the return value of the profile will be returned by the value resolver either as 'Content' or as text (see Use as string).

• If the Parse result option is selected, the profile should return a target XML structure that is read as 'server XML' if it runs without errors. Orchestration templates (e.g. DEFAULT:list for a 'list') are available for building the suitable target structure. In addition, the input data of a profile addressed by Profile call reflects the 'server XML' structure of the associated input value.

• If the called profile returns binary data (e.g. the content of a graphic or a specific application file), the Parse result option should not be selected.

The Use as string option determines whether the return value of the value resolver should return the data obtained from the profile call directly or formatted as text.

• If the Use as string option is selected, the value resolver returns the string conversion of the actual return value.

• If the Use as string option is not selected (default), the data (a parsed data object or the binary data from the profile as the body of a 'Content' object) will be used directly as the return value.

• If the Use as string option is selected, data from the profile can be displayed in Lobster Data Platform / Orchestration as a text value, assigned or further processed e.g. via concatenation with other value resolvers.

• If the called profile provides binary data (e.g. the content of a graphic or a specific application file), the Use as string option should not be selected.

In the Variables area, the symbols and assignments of values to profile variables can be added or removed. The following specifications are provided for each variable:

• A Variable name (required field) must be specified. The specified name is prefixed in the profile with MSG_CALL_. Corresponding variables (in the illustrated case e.g. MSG_CALL_FILENAME_PREFIX) must be explicitly created in the called profile so that a Value is assigned.

• A Value resolver must be configured as a value (required field), the evaluation of which determines the value for the addressed profile variable at runtime.

• The Send as file option appears if the configuration for the Value refers to a data type (such as 'Content') that can optionally pass a reference to a temporary file that is automatically deleted after the profile call, instead of a direct assignment.