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:
- Generation of the physical SDO classes representing the database tables.
- 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
Work with WebSphere Commerce service modules
Work with the data service layer
Last updated: 25 November 2009