Object Translation (MDR)

Depending on the MDR that CA NIM UM connects to, by default, end users may have to specify an ID of an object as a value into the CA NIM UM request, rather than a more user-friendly value, for certain fields.  Object Translation is a feature that lets an end user specify a more user-friendly value for some CA NIM UM fields, when the feature is enabled. The feature is disabled by default.
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Depending on the MDR that CA NIM UM connects to, by default, end users may have to specify an ID of an object as a value into the CA NIM UM request, rather than a more user-friendly value, for certain fields.  Object Translation is a feature that lets an end user specify a more user-friendly value for some CA NIM UM fields, when the feature is enabled. The feature is disabled by default.
How Object Translation Works
  • The Id and user-friendly value of each supported object is loaded at startup, and stored in the memory. The number of objects stored for each object type is configurable.
  • Users specify the user-friendly value for the field as one of the inputs and CA NIM UM gets the corresponding object Id of that field. CA NIM UM then sends the object Id to the MDR.
  • When CA NIM UM receives a response from the MDR, CA NIM UM replaces the Id of the object with the user-friendly value as appropriate. CA NIM UM then sends the response back to the end user.
  • If an Id or a user-friendly value is not found in the memory, then CA NIM UM attempts to look up that object in the MDR. If the object exists, then CA NIM UM stores the new information in the memory.
  • If an object is not found, then CA NIM UM sends the input or output value as is.
NIM UM does not support both translation and possible values conversion in the filter conditions. If the translation of the fields are set to true, those fields cannot use possible values defined in the configuration for filter conditions.
Objects Supported for Object Translation
CA NIM UM supports the following object types for Object Translation:
  • Users: Used within CA NIM UM fields, for example, assignee (v1) or assigneeUserID (v2) and createdBy (v1) or creationUserID(v2)
  • Non-Service Configuration Items (CI): Used within CA NIM UM field, for example, affectedCI (v1) or affectedCIID(v2)
  • Categories: Used within CA NIM UM field category
  • Groups: Used within CA NIM UM field, for example, assigneeGroup
For more information about each of these objects, see the child pages.
MDR Specific Differences for Object Translation
While this page and subpages are meant to provide a general overview of Object Translation, it is possible that each MDR may have some differences from other MDRs, as it relates to Object Translation.  If there are differences to be understood, see the Readme of the specific MDR. The first page for all the MDR readme's can be found here.
Performance
When Object Translation is enabled CA NIM UM will retrieve the objects from the MDR and then store the objects in memory.  The number of objects that are stored in the cache at startup of CA NIM UM is configurable, but the more objects that are stored, the more memory will be required.  Based on the testing we did with one MDR, it appears that the memory growth will be linear with respect to the number of objects that are stored.