Creating properties in transformation extensions

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

  1. In the manifest editor, on the Extensions tab, right-click a TransformationExtension element; then click New > Property.
  2. 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.
  3. Click File > Save.

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.

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