Service Manager

Using Counters

•About Counters

•Viewing Counters

•Resetting a Counter

•Creating a Counter

•Example: Using a Counter Name in an Initialization Rule

About Counters

You can manage counters for existing business objects and set up counters for new business objects.

Counters are usually used in association with a business object field, usually in an initialization business rule to set the initial value and then get the next specified incremental value, using the GetNextCounter() function.

Viewing Counters

1.From the Configuration Console, click Build > Business Objects to open the Business Objects workspace.

2.From the right pane, click View Counters. The application displays the list of existing business objects with counter values, with the following information:

Option	Description
Name	Name of the counter
Initial value	The first integer value for the counter. This could also be a negative number. Counter length is limited to 9 digits.
Increment	The incremental counter value for the next record.
Current value	The current value for the most recent record.
Last Modified	The time and date that this counter was modified.
Modified by	The login name of the user who last modified the record.

3.Click the name of the counter to view the record and modify any values.

Resetting a Counter

When resetting the counter or modifying counters for existing records, try not to create duplicate records. To prevent duplication, you can reset the counter to a value that is currently higher than the number shown in the Current Value field.

1.From the Configuration Console, click Build > Business Objects to open the Business Objects workspace.

2.From the right pane, click View Counters.

3.Click a counter from the list. The application displays the counter details page.

4.To set the counter number to 0, click Reset counter to start the counter at the new base value, and accept the confirmation message.

5.Click Save.

Creating a Counter

1.From the Configuration Console, click Build > Business Objects to open the Business Objects workspace.

2.From the right pane, click View Counters.

3.Click Add new.... The application displays a blank counter form.

4.Enter information into the fields.

Field	Description
Name	Name of the counter. This is the name that is used in the initialization business rule for the business object to get the next counter value.
Base Value	The first or initial integer value for the counter. This could also be a negative number. Counter length is limited to 9 digits.
Increment	The incremental counter value for the next record.

5.Click Save.