Business objects

A business object is an object that has a set of attributes and values, operations, and relationships to other business objects. Business objects contain business data and model the business behavior.

Unlike a business object, a database object does not model behavior. A database object is a self-contained software entity that consists of both data and functions to manipulate data. A business object might consist of one or more database objects.

Every business object has a fixed set of properties that identify the business object type. The properties also specify how the database can use the business object.

Information about a business object, which is referred to as the metadata, is stored in the database in database tables. Business objects include the following metadata:

• The definition of the business object, such as its name, the database entity, whether the object is persistent or nonpersistent, and the Java™ class name
• Attributes, such as the name, data type, size, and the field validation class name
• Associated relationships

Business objects can be either persistent or nonpersistent. Persistent business objects are associated with a database view or table and store attribute values in a database. Data in a nonpersistent business object is transient and is not stored in the database.

The metadata that is associated with business objects provides information about the data in database tables and is used to manage the database objects.