SmartObject Properties

This content applies to legacy design tools (such as K2 Studio, K2 for Visual Studio, or the Silverlight-based K2 workflow design tool). If you have upgraded from K2 blackpearl 4.7 to K2 Five, these tools may still be available in your environment. These legacy tools may not be available in new installations of K2 Five. These legacy tools may also not be available, supported, or behave as described, in future updates or versions of K2. Please see the legacy component support policy for more information about support for these components.

SmartObject Properties are attributes that define the object. Similar to the columns or fields in a table, they might include First Name, Last Name, Social Security Number, Department and so on. Properties are created manually when you create the SmartObject or they are retrieved via a service and the SmartObject is created to expose the properties from the line of business system, to anything in K2 or beyond that can use the SmartObject.

The property itself has the following attributes:

SmartObject Properties What it is
Name The name given to the property e.g. First Name. This name uniquely identifies the property within the object.
Description The description is for information purposes only and describes the property. Descriptions can be useful when discriminating between properties that have similar names or similar uses in the object..
Type This refers to the data type or variable type
Key The Key property identifies the field / property as unique which ensures that the contents of the property will always be unique and no two fields will contain the same data.
SmartBox Mark the check box if the SmartObject property is to be created in the SmartBox server. Properties in a single SmartObject can reside in different line of business systems, and if they have no other place to live, they can be stored in SmartBox.

A SmartObject requires at least one Key property

The number of properties allowed for SQL-based SmartObjects is limited by Microsoft SQL server.

SmartObject Type

The SmartObject Type determines the input format of the SmartObject property at runtime. The following types are available:

Type Description
Autonumber When a new record is created, an index is automatically generated and incremented.
AutoGUID The AutoGUID is similar to the Autonumber and takes on the role of an identity type field where a GUID is auto-generated when a record is created,
Date Used for a timezone invariant date (no time)
Date Time Used to specify a UTC time that displays a timezone-adjusted date
Decimal Decimal numbers
File File storage
GUID Global Unique Identifier
Hyperlink Hyperlink data type
Image Image storage
Memo Large string value
Multivalue The Multivalue is a proprietary type which has a simple XML schema similar to a key-value pair list.
Number Numeric value
Text Standard text characters
Time Used for a timezone invariant time (no date)
Yes/No Boolean type property