Search code examples
c#business-process-managementepicorerp

Epicor 10 How to store data between BPM pre and post processing?

I'm tying to migrate an Epicor V9 system with Progress/ABL code to v10 with C# code. I've got most of it done but I need a way to keep data between a BPMs pre and post processing. The comments in the original ABL code state:

Description : This function stores data from a BPM pre processing action, it does this by using a private-data (storage attribute) on the calling program... this remains in scope during both the BPM pre and BPM post forward to procedure calls

The Epicor v9 system was set up such that the Quote form calls the BPM pre/post processing in a .p file. The .p file in turned call the code I am trying to migrate in a .i file. It looks to be a simple stack or array of strings.

What would be used in Epicor 10 to persist data between pre/post BPM processing like the .i code did in V9?

Solution

  • You can use CallContext.Properties for this.

    In E10.0 the CallContext.Properties was of type Epicor.Utilities.PropertyBag, and items would be accessed as below:

    //Add
CallContext.Properties.Add("LineRef", LineRef);
// Get
var LineRef = (string)CallContext.Properties["LineRef"];
// Remove
CallContext.Properties.Remove("LineRef");

    E10.1 CallContext.Properties is now of type System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurentDictionary, which is a .Net built in type and much better documented. However the methods to add and remove entries from it have changes as below:

    //Add
bool added = CallContext.Properties.TryAdd("LineRef", LineRef);
// Get
var LineRef = (string)CallContext.Properties["LineRef"];  //Note: Do not use .ToString() this converts instead of unboxing.
// Remove
object dummy;
bool foundAndRemoved = CallContext.Properties.TryRemove("LineRef", out dummy);

    To use this your class needs to inherit from ContextBoundBase and implement the only the context bound constructor or you will get 'Ice.ContextBoundBase<Erp.ErpContext>.ContextBoundBase()' is obsolete: 'Use the constructor that takes a data context'

    public partial class MyInvokeExternalMethodThing : ContextBoundBase<ErpContext>
{
    public MyInvokeExternalMethodThing(ErpContext ctx) : base(ctx)
    {

    }

    In E10.1 you can put any kind of object into this, so if you have an array of strings you don't need to use the old trick of tilde~separated~values.