How do I access a complex object that is within a BDM object from a form?

Q&A
1

I just want to start with the fact that I am completely new to Bonita so I apologize in advance for any errors in my terminology. If I need to clarify anything please let me know.

I have a BDM object called IncidentTopic which contains elements called name, description and a reference called prod_info, to another BDM object called ProductInfo. The BDM object ProductInfo contains elements called global_name and type. I have a business variable called incidentTopic of type IncidentTopic. My instantiation form is successfully populating the database with all of the information including a correct reference to the selected ProductInfo. However, when I try to populate a form for a human task that allows a person to review/edit the request I can’t seem to get access to the prod_info element of the IncidentTopic. I am currently accessing the IncidentTopic data through a variable I defined in the form editor with the following attributes:
Name: incidentTopicBDM
Type: External API
Value: …/{{context.incidentTopic_ref.link}}

I am successfully getting the values for incidentTopicBDM.name and incidentTopicBDM.description but the values for incidentTopicBDM.prod_info.global_name and incidentTopicBDM.prod_info.type are blank.

When I look at the response to the REST call to get incidentTopicBDM I can see name and description in the JSON object but for the prod_info it is listed in an array called links which is a JSON object with elements called rel and href. If I directly call the href in the link for prod_info I get back the correct information for the selected product. So I am pretty sure that my issue is that I’m not using the correct syntax to get the prod_info.global_name and prod_info.type. How do I access those data to populate some text fields?

Thanks

2

This is because you are lazy! Well, your BDM composition is at least :wink:

Check lazy vs eager loading from this documentation page and it should make better sense!

3

Thank you Pierrick,

Switching from lazy to eager works. Just for future reference for anybody else who may end up reading this question, I also came up with a solution that works even with lazy loading.
I created a form variable called prod_info_incident_topic_link_index of type Javascript. The Javascript code for this variable is:

function getProdInfoIndex () {
var index = 0;

$data.incidentTopicBDM.links.forEach (function (d, i){
    if (d.rel === "prod_info") {
        index = i;
    }
});

return index;

}

return getProdInfoIndex();

I then created a form variable of type external API called product_info with a URL of …/{{incidentTopicBDM.links[prod_info_incident_topic_link_index].href}}. This returns the correct product info object that is associated with the incident.