An ODA (Object Discovery Agent) enables you to generate application-specific business object definitions. A business object definition is a template for a business object. The ODA examines specified application objects, "discovers" the elements of those objects that correspond to business object attributes, and generates business object definitions to represent the information. Business Object Designer provides a graphical interface to access the Object Discovery Agent and to work with it interactively.
The Object Discovery Agent (ODA) for Ariba Buyer generates business object definitions from metadata exported by Ariba Buyer at initialization. The Business Object Designer wizard automates the process of creating these definitions. You can view or make modifications to a business object definition before you save it to the server.
You use the ODA to generate business object definitions at two different stages: