Business object metadata

The adapter is metadata-driven. In this context, metadata is data about the application, which is stored in a business object definition and helps the adapter interact with an application. A metadata-driven connector handles each business object that it supports based on metadata encoded in the business object definition rather than on instructions that are hard-coded in the connector.

Business object metadata includes the structure of a business object, the settings of its attribute properties, and the content of its application-specific text. Because the connector is metadata-driven, it can handle new or modified business objects without requiring modifications to the adapter code. The adapter's configured data handler makes assumptions about the structure of its business objects, object cardinality, the format of the application-specific text, and the database representation of the business object. Therefore, when you create or modify a business object for the adapter, your modifications must conform to the rules that the adapter is designed to follow, or it cannot process new or modified business objects correctly.

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