You can create properties that refine the behavior of a transformation
extension. Unlike rules, extractors, and transforms, you do not have to associate
a transformation extension property with a target transformation. The core
transformation functionality does not distinguish between the properties of
a transformation extension and the properties of the target transform.
Before you begin
You must open the plug-in manifest file of the transformation extension.
The manifest file must contain a TransformationExtension element.
About this task
If the
property that you create exists in the target transformation already, the
following events occur:- If the property in the target transformation is readable and writable,
the property that you create in the transformation extension overrides the
default value in the target transformation.
- If the property in the target transformation is read-only, the core transformation
functionality ignores the property that you create.
To add a property to a transformation extension:
Procedure
- In the manifest editor, on the Extensions tab,
right-click a TransformationExtension element; then click .
- In the Extension Element Details area,
specify values for the following fields:
Tip: For more information about the fields in the
Extension
Element Details area, place the mouse pointer over the name to
display hover help.
- In the name field, specify
a name that enables you to recognize the property.
- In the id field, specify a unique
identifier for the property. This value should be unique within the target
transformation. You should specify an identifier that follows this naming
convention: x.y, where x represents
the name of the transformation extension, and y represents
the name of the property.
- Specify values for
the remaining properties in this area.
- Click .
Results
For each property that you create, a Property element is added
to the TransformationExtension element hierarchy.
Note: You
can retrieve the information about the property by calling the methods in
the ITransformationProperty interface. The methods in this interface extract
the value and metadata of a transformation property. If you extract the underlying
metatype data for the property value by using the getMetatypeData method,
to validate the property value you can specify application code to parse the
String that this method returns. For information about how to retrieve the
values for custom properties, see the Javadoc HTML documentation for the ITransformationProperty
class.