Creating or modifying business objects

The connector comes with sample business objects only. The systems integrator, consultant, or customer must build business objects.

The connector is a metadata-driven connector. In WebSphere business integration system business objects, metadata is data about the application, which is stored in a business object definition and which helps the connector 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 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 information. Because the connector is metadata-driven, it can handle new or modified business objects without requiring modifications to the connector code. However, the connector's configured data handler makes assumptions about the structure of its business objects, object cardinality, the format of the application-specific information, and the database representation of the business object. Therefore, when you create or modify a business object for WebSphere MQ, your modifications must conform to the rules the connector is designed to follow, or the connector cannot process new or modified business objects correctly.

This chapter describes how the connector processes business objects and describes the assumptions the connector makes. You can use this information as a guide to implementing new business objects.

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