Each business object corresponds to a database table or view, and each simple attribute within the object corresponds to a column in that table or view.
Business objects can be either flat or hierarchical. All of the attributes of a flat business object are simple and represent one row in the database table. The term hierarchical business object refers to a complete business object, including all the child business objects that it contains at any level. The term individual business object refers to one business object, independent of child business objects that it might contain or that contain it. The individual business object can represent a view that spans multiple database tables. The term top-level business object refers to the individual business object at the top of the hierarchy that does not itself have a parent business object.
A hierarchical business object has attributes that represent a child business object, an array of child business objects, or a combination of the two. In turn, each child business object can contain a child business object or an array of business objects, and so on. A single-cardinality relationship occurs when an attribute in a parent business object represents one child business object. In this case, the attribute is of the same type as the child business object.
A multiple-cardinality relationship occurs when an attribute in the parent business object represents an array of child business objects. In this case, the attribute is of the same type as the child business objects.
In each type of cardinality, the relationship between the parent and child business objects is described by the application-specific information of the key attribute in the business object storing the relationship. For more information on this application-specific information, see "ForeignKey."
Last updated: Thu Mar 23 13:24:29 2006
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