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Configuring MDF objects

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to Describe options for configuring MDF objects.

MDF object configuration overview

Most of the MDF object configurations are maintained using Configure Object Definitions in Admin Center. Before you start using or populating data to an MDF objects, you have to create new Generic Object (GO) definition or review existing Generic Object definition. There are several areas of a Generic Object (GO) that controls different aspect of the GO.

Use the Action Search to navigate to the Configure Object Definition tool and select Create New: Object Definition.

Once a new object definition is opened, the different areas that can be configured are displayed.

Object details

This section determines the overall behavior of the Generic Object (GO).

Code: Unique identifier for Object. All custom objects created are automatically prefixed with cust_.
Effective Dating: This defines if object instance can have only single record or multiple records based on different dates. Please do not confuse this with audit, which can be enabled irrespective of configuration of this field.

Available Effective Dating options are:

None: Only a single record can be maintained for given object instance. Whenever you make changes, you overwrite the previous saved information.

Basic: Multiple records for given object instance can be maintained but only one record can be added for given date.

Multiple Changes Per Day: Multiple records can be maintained for on each given date.

From Parent: This is used for child objects so that they will match the parent’s effective dating. Parent/Child relationships between objects will be discussed in the association section. An Object instance for a child object cannot be maintained independently and can only be maintained along with parent object.

API Visibility: All MDF Objects data and some of MDF Object configuration can be accessed via oData API using this setting.
Available Options are:
Not Visible: This is the default value; object will not be allowed to be accessed via oData.
Read Only: Object instance will be accessed as Read Only without edit capabilities.
Editable: Object instance will be accessed with both Read and Write capabilities like Create, Update, Insert, and Delete.
Status: Set object status.
Available Options are:
Active: Object can be used.
Inactive:This status cannot be used if an object instance exists or if the object is referenced by another active object. An inactive object will not be visible anywhere in the system, including configurable UI designer, Rules, RBP or Import/Export.
MDF Version History: The MDF Version History allows you to capture Audit data for any changes done to object instances. Any operation such as Create, Update, Insert or Delete will add audit records in the system.

Available Options are:

No Selection/ No: If any of these options is selected; no audit records will be created for any of the operation.

Delete History: Only Delete operation will create audit records.

Complete History: Audit Records will be created for all operations like Create, Insert, Update and Delete.

Default Screen: Users can create a Configuration UIs for a given object. If you would like to use the Configuration UIs created to be displayed on the Manage Data, you can assign the Configuration UI here. Leaving this blank will display the Generic Object (GO) in the standard UI.
Label: This is the name of the object displayed on different UIs.
Description: This is for capturing a short summary about the object.
API Sub Version: This field controls whether the technical fields are exposed in the oData API or not.

Available Options:

No Selection: With this option system will behave as if you selected V1.1.

V1.0: System fields which are not of much use, will be exposed in oData API.

V1.1: System fields will not be exposed on oData API. This is recommended option if you are creating a new object.

Subject User Field: This defines which field contains subject user information for the object, which is then used to determine workflow routing. Only fields which are of Data Type User can be used for this configuration. If the External Code field is defined with Data Type User, it will be used as default value for this configuration.
Workflow Routing: This allows workflow routing to the object. If you select a workflow configuration record, then the corresponding workflow will be triggered for any operation done on an object instance. Workflow Routing requires Employee Central Foundation Objects feature to be enabled in Provisioning.
Pending Data: This lets you control if changes must be available with or without approval. If you have chosen a Workflow Routing that involves an approval and you want changes to take effect only after approval, set this field to Yes.
To do Category: This is used when Pending Data is set to Yes. This determines what subsection of the To Do list workflow approvers will see notifications for this Generic Object (GO) on the Home Page.
Object Category: There are different object categories available to determine the type of data that an object represents: Uncategorized, Configuration, User Transactional, Non- User Transactional and Technical.

Fields

This section allows you to manage the object fields and their attributes. By default only a few field attributes are visible on the default UI and to see the full configuration options, choose the Details link next to each field row.

The attributes that appear on Configure Object Definition page while you add fields to your object definition are listed below. Based on the data type of the field, field attributes differ.

Associations

Associations define a relationship between two objects. The type of association determines what kind of relationship two objects have and what is their behavior. MDF supports associations between Generic Objects or between a Generic Object and a Employee Central Foundation object.

For any type of association, the relationship can be "One to Many" or "One to One". For example, a Division may have a "One to Many" relationship to a Business Unit. A Location can only have one Geozone associated with it; this is a One to One association.

Create a new company car object

Business example

You need to create a Generic Object to capture the details around company cars. It must include the following fields:

Employee Name
Effective as of
Model
Year
Purchase Date

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

Use the Action Search to navigate to the Configure Object Definitions tool.
Choose Create New → Object Definition.

To create your Company Car Object, use the information provided in the tables below.

Object Settings

Object	Settings
Code	comp_car
Effective Dating	Basic
Label	Company Car
Pending Data	No

		Field Details
Field Name	Data Type	Required	Label
externalCode	User	Yes	Employee Name
externalName	Hide this field by selecting Details and for the Visibility, selecting "Not Visible".
effectiveStartDate	Date	Yes	Effective as of
Create the three custom fields below. Please note that the prefix "cust_" will automatically be added to all custom field names and cannot be deleted.
model	String	Yes	Model
year	Number	No	Year
purchase_date	Date	Yes	Date Purchased/Leased

Secure your Generic Object.
1. Scroll down to the Security section.
2. Make sure that the Secured field is set to Yes.
3. For the Permission Category field, select Miscellaneous Permissions.
Save your Generic Object.
1. At the bottom of the page, select Save.
2. In the confirmation popup window indicating that the externalName is set to Not Visible, select Yes.
3. In the Successfully Saved popup window, select OK.
Give your administrator the permission.
1. From the Action Search, navigate to Manage Permission Roles.
2. Select your administrator role and click on Edit and Next.
3. Go to the category Miscellaneous Permissions under the category User Permissions.
4. Find the Company Car Object and select the permissions: View Current, View History, Create, Insert, Correct, Delete, Import/Export.
5. Click on Next and Save.
6. Log out and go back to the instance to make sure that permissions are reflected.
Test your new object by creating a company car.
1. From the Action Search, navigate to the Manage Data.
2. Select Create New: Company Car.
3. Select the employee of your choice.
4. Select the first day of the current month for the Effective as of field.
5. For the Model, type ABC.
6. For the year, indicate the current year.
7. For the date Purchase/Leased field, indicate the first day of the current year.
8. Select Save.

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