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Syntax Rules

This topic describes the syntax rules for referring to properties and for creating expressions within various BPL activities.

References to Message Properties

In activities within a BPL process, it may be necessary to refer to properties of the message. The rules for referring to a property are different depending on the kind of messages you are working with.

  • For messages other than virtual documents, use syntax like the following:

    message.propertyname
    

    Or:

    message.propertyname.subpropertyname
    

    Where propertyname is a property in the message, and subpropertyname is a property of that property.

  • For virtual documents other than XML virtual documents, use the syntax described in Syntax Guide for Virtual Property Paths.

  • For XML virtual documents, see Routing XML Virtual Documents in Productions.

Literal Values

When you assign a value to a property, you often specify a literal value. Literal values are also sometimes suitable in other places, such as the value in a trace action.

A literal value is either of the following:

XML Reserved Characters

Because BPL processes are saved as XML documents, you must use XML entities in the place of XML reserved characters:

To include this character... Use this XML entity...
> >
< &lt;
& &amp;
' &apos;
" &quot;

For example, to assign the value Joe’s "Good Time" Bar & Grill to a property, set Value equal to the following:

"Joe&apos;s &quot;Good Time&quot; Bar &amp; Grill"

This restriction does not apply inside <code> and <sql> activities, because InterSystems IRIS® automatically wraps a CData block around the text that you enter into the editor. (In the XML standard, a CData block encloses text that should not be parsed as XML. Thus you can include reserved characters in that block.)

Separator Characters in Virtual Documents

In most of the virtual document formats, specific characters are used as separators between segments, between fields, between subfields, and so on. If you need to include any of these characters as literal text when you are setting a value in the message, you must instead use the applicable escape sequence, if any, for that document format.

For information on these separators, see:

When XML Reserved Characters Are Also Separators

  • If the character (for example, &) is a separator and you want to include it as a literal character, use the escape sequence that applies to the virtual document format.

  • In all other cases, use the XML entity as shown previously in XML Reserved Characters.

Numeric Character Codes

You can include decimal or hexadecimal representations of characters within literal strings.

The string &#n; represents a Unicode character when n is a decimal Unicode character number. One example is &#233; for the Latin e character with acute accent mark (é).

Alternatively, the string &#xh; represents a Unicode character when h is a hexadecimal Unicode character number. One example is &#x00BF; for the inverted question mark (¿).

Valid Expressions

When you assign a value to a property, you can specify an expression, in the language that you selected for the BPL process. You also use expressions in other places, such as the condition for an <if> activity, the value in a <trace> activity, statements in a <code> activity, and so on.

The following are all valid expressions:

  • Literal values, as described in the previous section.

  • Function calls (InterSystems IRIS provides a set of utility functions for use in business rules and data transformations. For details, see Utility Functions for Use in Productions.)

  • References to properties, as described in References to Properties.

  • Any expression that combines these, using the syntax of the scripting language you chose for BPL process. Note the following:

    • In ObjectScript, the concatenation operator is the _ (underscore) character, as in:

      value='"prefix"_source.{MSH:ReceivingApplication}_"suffix"'

    • To learn about useful ObjectScript string functions, such as $CHAR and $PIECE, see ObjectScript Reference.

    • For a general introduction, see Using ObjectScript.

Indirection

InterSystems IRIS supports indirection in values for the following BPL element-and-attribute combinations only:

The at sign symbol, @, is the indirection operator.

For example, the <call> element supports indirection in the values of the name or target attributes. The name identifies the call and may be referenced in a later <sync> element. The target is the configured name of the business operation or business process to which the request is being sent. Either of these strings can be a literal value:

<call name="Call" target="MyApp.MyOperation" async="1"> 

Or the @ indirection operator can be used to access the value of a context variable that contains the appropriate string:

<call name="@context.nextCallName" target="@context.nextBusinessHost" async="1"> 

For information on @ indirection syntax, see <call>, <sync>, and <transform>.

Important:

BPL and DTL are similar in many ways, but DTL does not support indirection.

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