In the WebSphere business integration system, a business object definition consists of:
At run time the business object definition is instantiated as a particular business object. This instance represents the specific contents of an application's business entity, for example, a task entry.
Attributes may contain data themselves (these are called simple attributes), or may point instead to a child business object or arrays of child business objects that contain the pertinent data. Business objects that contain only simple attributes are called flat business objects. Business objects that contain attributes that point to a child business object or arrays of child business objects as well as simple attributes are called hierarchical business objects. In hierarchical business objects, key values connect the parent business object and any child business objects.
A cardinality 1 container object, or single-cardinality relationship, occurs when an attribute in a parent business object contains a single child business object. In this case, the child business object represents a collection that can contain only one record. The attribute type is the same as that of the child business object.
A cardinality n container object, or multiple-cardinality relationship, occurs when an attribute in the parent business object contains an array of child business objects. In this case, the child business object represents a collection that can contain multiple records. The attribute type is the same as that of the array of child business objects.