SmartObject Designer - Introduction to SmartObjects
Creating a SmartObject is the first step in the process of SmartForms creation. The SmartObject Designer wizard allows the user to create and maintain a SmartObject and its associations to other SmartObjects. The SmartObject Designer wizard guides the user through the creation and maintenance of a SmartObject. The Wizard starts with a Details screen which presents the user with the option to choose between a simple SmartObject or an Advanced SmartObject. The rest of the wizard presents the same steps irrespective of which type of SmartObject is selected.
SmartObjects are business entities that aggregate data across applications and Line-of-Business systems. SmartObjects are reusable objects that surface in K2 for Visual Studio, K2 Studio, K2 for Visio, K2 Workspace and K2 smartforms. SmartObjects are created in K2 Designer for Visual Studio, K2 Studio and SmartForms. Existing SmartObjects are surfaced in the SmartForms Category Tree menu which is located on the left of the SmartForms canvas.
The purpose of designing and using SmartObjects, otherwise known as Business Entities, is not to create a secondary storage to replicate the data in other systems, but to provide a way to work with the information as it exists within the respective systems. With SmartObjects, the back end systems are still used for storage and retrieval of the business data they contain, but the SmartObjects become the mechanism through which that data is used. The more back end systems an enterprise has, the more useful SmartObjects become.
A SmartObject can have multiple associations with multiple SmartObjects. A SmartObject can be bound to multiple Views in the SmartForms user interface, and a View can interact with multiple SmartObjects by use of Rules and Conditions. A View can be unbound in the case of an Item View but is usually bound to a primary SmartObject.
The following types of SmartObjects are available:
- SmartObject - Simple SmartObject containing the basic elements of a SmartObject using the K2 SmartBox service
- Advanced SmartObject - Allowing greater customization of the SmartObject
Advantages of using SmartObjects
Following is a list of advantages when using SmartObjects:
- Create new business entities with no code
- Wizards for creating data structures and common data methods
- Business user tooling
- Entities available through ADO.NET provider and in SQL Reporting Services
- K2 SmartBox storage engine abstracts data design
- Versioned across design and runtime
- Supports transactions, indexing and large scale data access
- Supports SmartObject Inheritance
- Supports SmartObject filtering