Business object attribute properties

Business object architecture defines various properties that apply to attributes. This section describes how the adapter interprets these properties.

The following table titled "Attribute properties" gives the interpretation and settings for these properties.

Attribute properties

Properties Interpretation and settings
Cardinality Each business object attribute that represents a child or an array of child business objects has the value of single (1) or multiple (n) cardinality, respectively. All attributes that represent child business objects also have a ContainedObjectVersion property (which specifies the child’s version number) and a Relationship property (which specifies the value Containment).
Foreign Key When arrays of child business objects whose cardinality is n are retrieved, foreign keys are used in the WHERE clause of SELECT statements.
Note: The adapter does not support specifying an attribute that represents a child business object as a foreign key.
The RetrieveAll verb overrides the use of keys and foreign keys.
Key At least one simple attribute in each business object must be specified as the key.
Note: The adapter does not support specifying an attribute that represents a child business object or an array of child business objects as a key attribute.
If the key property is set to true for a simple attribute, the adapter adds that attribute to the WHERE clause of the SELECT statement and UPDATE SQL statements that it generates while processing the business object. The RetrieveAll verb overrides the use of keys and foreign keys.
Name This property represents the unique name of the attribute, if it is a simple attribute, or the name of the business object, if it is a child business object.
Required Specifies whether an attribute must contain a value. If this property is set to true for a container whose cardinality is single (1), then the adapter requires that the parent business object contain a child business object for this attribute. Business objects that are passed to the adapter for create, update, and delete operations must also contain a child business object. Cardinality is single (1) for simple attributes and multiple (n) for container attributes. The adapter causes a create operation to fail if a business object does not have a valid value or a default value for a required attribute. It also fails if no data is available upon retrieval from the database for this object.
Type The type of the attribute (such as Integer, String, Date, Boolean, Double, or Float) if it is a simple attribute, or the type of business object if it is a child business object. When the adapter encounters an attribute of a type that it does not support, the adapter wraps the value in quotation marks and handles the value as character data.
Related concepts
Business object structure

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Last updated: Thu Mar 23 13:24:30 2006

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