Business objects

A business object is a structure that consists of data, the action to be performed on the data, and additional instructions, if any, for processing the data. The data can represent either a business entity, such as an invoice or an employee record, or unstructured text. The adapter uses business objects to send data to, or obtain data from the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne server.

How the adapter uses business objects

The adapter uses the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Dynamic Java™ Connector APIs to communicate with the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne application. The adapter exchanges information with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne through business functions, XML List calls and the real-time event mechanism.

The following figures illustrate how business objects are used by the adapter for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne for outbound and inbound processing.

Figure 1. How the adapter for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne uses business objects during outbound processing

Illustration showing the flow of the outbound request from application to the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne server

Figure 2. How the adapter for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne uses business objects during inbound processing

Illustration of the flow of events during inbound processing

How business objects are created

You create business objects by using the external service wizard, which is launched from IBM® Integration Designer. The external service wizard connects to the application, discovers data structures in the application, and generates business objects to represent them. It also generates other artifacts needed by the adapter.

The following figure illustrates the high-level flow of steps involved in creating business objects using the external service wizard.

Figure 3. Creating business objects using the external service wizard

Flow diagram showing the task flow of the external service wizard

Business object structure

The adapter supports processing of hierarchical business objects. The top-level business object that comes under the business graph is a wrapper container business object. A container business object representing a JD Edwards EnterpriseOne operation is a wrapper object that contains single or multiple child business function objects, also called simple business function objects. Each business function object represents a specific function call in the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne application.

The following figures show diagram views of a business graph, a business object container, a simple (or child) business object, a container business object for a container real-time event, and a flat business object for a single real-time event.

Figure 4. The structure of a business object graph, shown in a diagram view in IBM Integration Designer

Screen capture of the structure of a business object graph, shown in a diagram view in IBM Integration Designer

Figure 5. The structure of a business object container, shown in a diagram view in IBM Integration Designer

Screen capture of the structure of a business object container, shown in a diagram view in IBM Integration Designer

Figure 6. The structure of a child business object, shown in a diagram view in IBM Integration Designer

Screen capture showing the structure of a child business object

Figure 7. Container business object for a container real-time event

Screen capture of a container business object of a container real-time event

Figure 8. Flat business object for a single real-time event

Screen capture of a flat business object for a single real-time event

During adapter configuration, you can optionally choose to generate a business graph. In version 6.0.2, each top-level business object is contained in a business graph, which includes a verb that an application can use to specify additional information about the operation to be performed. Beginning version 7.0, business graphs are optional; they are required only when you are adding business objects to a module created with an earlier version. If business graphs exist, they are processed, but the verb is ignored.