Modeling business object type metadata
Business object type metadata can be added to business object definitions to enhance their value in the runtime environment. The business object framework allows you to design, annotate, and convert business object type metadata.
The business object framework provides a mechanism that enables:
- Metadata to be mixed into a business object in a consistent, and relatively non-intrusive fashion
- A prescriptive policy for developers to define complex annotation structures
- A prescriptive policy for business object developers and deployers to annotate a business object with instance metadata that conforms to the predefined complex annotation structures
- A set of APIs for transforming the annotations at run time into a simple to use DataObject structure
This process involves at least three different roles:
- The first role is that of the business object type metadata designer. This role designs the metadata structure. For example, the business object framework plays this role and defines a couple of metadata characteristics for annotating a business object. It is expected that adapters such as PeopleSoft, Siebel, and SAP, play the role of the metadata designer to annotate the business object with application-specific information.
- The second role is the business object designer or deployer. This role uses the structure of the business object type metadata, and the policy defined by the business object type metadata framework, to annotate the business object definitions with metadata.
- If the business object is annotated correctly, the third role can use the business object metadata APIs to validate and inspect the metadata at run time, and turn it into a navigable and useful DataObject graph structure.
In addition, the business object framework provides for the following metadata features:
- Compound primary key and foreign key property definitions
- Top-level supported verb metadata annotations
For more details, refer to these other topics.
- Representing business object type metadata
The business object framework defines a mechanism by which business object type metadata can be mixed into either a top down, or externally developed, imported schema. - Designing business object type metadata
You can design a metadata structure to house the business object metadata. - Annotating a business object definition
You can use the syntax supported by the business object framework to annotate a business object definition. - Converting annotation into DataObjects
The business object framework provides the capability to transform annotations into a usable DataObject structure.
Parent topic: Programming model
Programming model