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Service data objects
Service data objects complement Service Component Architecture. Service Component Architecture defines the services as components and the connectivity between them. Service data objects define the data flowing between components.
Each component passes information as input and output. When a service is invoked, data objects are passed as an XML document with document-literal encoding when using a WSDL port type or as a Java™ object when using a Java interface. Data objects are the preferred form for data and metadata in Service Component Architecture services. Similar to components, service data objects separate the data object from its implementation.
For example, a component interacts with purchase
orders while the purchase order itself might use Java Database Connectivity
(JDBC) or Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) to perform the updates to the data. Service data objects let the integration developer focus on working with business artifacts. In fact, service data objects are transparent to the integration developer. They are defined by a service data objects Java Specification Request (JSR) for service data objects.
For more information see the 
service
data objects topic.
In the following diagram, service data objects are passed from an external service to an export, from an export to a component, from a component to a component, from a component to an import, and from an import to a service. Imports and exports are discussed in a subsequent imports and exports section.
Related concepts:
Service components
Service qualifiers
Modules
Imports and exports
Service implementation types