External function specification

Question

Hi All!
(Envs: Centos 5.2, Oracle 10.2.0.4)
According to documentation a developer should provide RETURN clause in the external function parameters declaration.
But I faced a conflict with additional extproc specific parameters , INDICATOR for example...
Option 1 (no INDICATOR variable in specification)
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION MyTest(Lang IN VARCHAR2, Form IN VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2
AS EXTERNAL
LIBRARY Lemma_Ext
NAME "MyExtTest"
LANGUAGE "C"
WITH CONTEXT
PARAMETERS(CONTEXT,Lang string, Form string, RETURN string)
and it works OK with it's "C" prototype
+char * MyExtTest (char Lang, char Form);+
Option 2 (with INDICATOR, doesn't work):
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION MyTest(Lang IN VARCHAR2, Form IN VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2
AS EXTERNAL
LIBRARY Lemma_Ext
NAME "MyExtTest"
LANGUAGE "C"
WITH CONTEXT
PARAMETERS(CONTEXT, Lang string, Form string, RETURN INDICATOR short, RETURN string)
and it is not works with following "C" prototype:
+char * MyExtTest (char Lang, char Form, short *return_ind);+
Option 3 (with INDICATOR, works!):
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION MyTest(Lang IN VARCHAR2, Form IN VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2
AS EXTERNAL
LIBRARY Lemma_Ext
NAME "MyExtTest"
LANGUAGE "C"
WITH CONTEXT
PARAMETERS(CONTEXT, Lang string, Form string, RETURN INDICATOR short)
and it works like a charm with the same "C" prototype as in the Option 2:
+char * MyExtTest (char Lang, char Form, short *return_ind);+
Just removing "RETURN string" was a correct solution!
And I found a couple of examples of successful external functions (with extra parameters) from Metalink. All these examples don't contain RETURN <type> in function specification.
So, where is the source of misunderstanding?
Regards,
Andrew.

Answer 1

Hi AndresG,
Are you using O2A cartridges or not?
If you are not, by default, the fulfillment states are in the following location --
a) external fulfillment state -- /ControlData/Functions/<Function>/orderItem/ExternalFulfillmentState
b) composite fulfillment state (i.e. output of FS composition) -- /ControlData/OrderItem/OrderItemFulfillmentState for order items, and /ControlData/OrderFulfillmentState for overall order.
Note that mapped fulfillment states are not persisted.
These defaults are configurable by creating FulfillmentStateModule.xquery file, and have XML catalog include the file. In fact, this is how O2A cartridges override these defaults; the fulfillment states are stored in /OrderLifeCycleManagement area.
Yes, you can update the external fulfillment state during function execution -- in your automation of the function, simply return the external fulfillment state in your xquery automator.
To send composite fulfillment state to CRM, yes, you need to create a Data Changed Event Notification -- set it to trigger by Composite Fulfillment State change.
Cheers,
Daniel Ho
OSM Product Management