Method Instances

A Finder is a special method that returns entity instances. A SpecificFinder returns exactly one entity instance. Finder methods are static methods and do not take a key as an input parameter. SpecificFinder methods are also static methods but they take a key (ID) explicitly.

Entities that can be reached only by association must have zero finders. Other entities should have one Finder method that returns multiple instances, and one SpecificFinder method that returns a single instance, given an ID.

For example, for the Customer entity, the Finder method might be SELECT * FROM Customers and the SpecificFinder method might be SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE CustomerID = id.

If you do not define Finders methods, your entity cannot be used in a Business Data List Web Part; if you do not define SpecificFinder methods, that entity cannot have actions on it, cannot be searched or indexed, and cannot be used in any of the Business Data features except the Related List Web Part.

To qualify for a Finder, the corresponding method must take filterable parameters as input and return collections of records, where each record must contain the key of the entity instance it represents. To qualify as a SpecificFinder, the corresponding method must take the entity instance key as one of the input parameters and must return fields, of which one of the fields is the key.