If you are designing an application-specific business object for an
existing connector or data handler, your first step is to consult its adapter
User Guide for its requirements on specifying application-specific information
and using business object handlers. Keep the following points in mind
when designing business objects for an existing connector or data
handler:
- To determine if there is an available Object Discovery Agent, check the
adapter User Guide for the connector and the documentation for the data
handler that will process your business object. Using the Object
Discovery Agent can greatly facilitate the business object design effort,
particularly when the entity involved is large.
- Determine whether there is an existing business object available that
models the application entity, such as a sample. Determine whether the
effort to customize the existing business object is less than creating an
entirely new one and if so then consider using the sample business
object.
Important |
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IBM does not support sample business objects, but they can be very useful
as a starting point for business object design. |
- Whether you use an Object Discovery Agent or an existing business object,
it is still important to examine and confirm all the data definition
requirements, such as the object key, foreign keys, child business objects,
default values, data types, and size limitations. The following factors
result in this requirement:
- Object Discovery Agents can facilitate the design effort, but cannot
discover all of the requirements surrounding an application entity.
- With existing business objects, the threat is that applications can be
installed and configured different ways to accommodate customer-specific
needs. A business object that accurately models an entity in one
application installation may not accurately model that entity in another
installation of that application.
While designing the application-specific business object, keep in mind that
its primary role is to model the entity in the data source. It is also
important to identify how its associated connector or data handler handles its
processing, and what are the requirements of the business process in which it
participates.
