Understanding > WebSphere Commerce and service-oriented architecture (SOA) > Data service layer

Commerce Feature Pack


Object-relational metadata

Object-relational metadata is an XML file that maps physical SDO Java classes to the database schema. The data service layer requires this object-relational metadata to translate between the physical Java classes and the WebSphere Commerce database schema.

Each service module has a set of object-relational metadata files that represent the database schema for the component. Metadata for custom tables is stored in WCDE_installdir\xml\config\servicemodulepackagename-ext\wc-object-relational-metadata.xml.

Object-relational metadata is used for two purposes:

  1. Generation of the physical SDO classes representing the database tables.

  2. To map between the data in the database and the physical SDO Java classes.

When you are extending the schema, the Data Service Layer Wizard generates the object-relational mapping metadata, based on the table names you choose.

Related tasks

Building object-relational metadata and Physical Service Data Objects to reflect schema changes using the Data Service Layer Wizard

Work with WebSphere Commerce service modules

Work with the data service layer

Last updated: 25 November 2009