Data access with Service Data Objects (SDO)
Faces components and Service Data Objects can work together to create a dynamic Web application that accesses data in a way that is optimized for the Web
Dynamic Web applications typically access data sources and are able to create, read, update, and delete data dynamically. Although there are several data access frameworks from which to choose, two are natively supported in the Web perspective: data access beans and Service Data Objects (SDO) (referred to as WDO for WebSphere Application Server version 5.x). SDO is a data-centric, disconnected, XML-integrated, data access mechanism that provides source-independent results. In other words, SDO is a data access method that is optimized for Web applications, in particular dynamic Web applications that use Faces components.
- Data-centric: Results are retrieved as a structured graph of data. SDO does not support the retrieval of objects (which include associated behaviors) as is the case with EJB persistence mechanisms.
- Disconnected: The retrieved result (data table) is independent of any associated connections or transactions.
- XML-integrated: Easy conversion of retrieved data to and from XML format.
- Source-independent result set: The results of SDO queries are standardized because results returned from any type of data source are converted to an SDO graphical representation. For example, an SDO query against a JDBC data source and a query against an EJB data source both return SDO structured results that use the same set of standard data types.
These SDO capabilities supplement the currently available object-oriented data access mechanism provided by EJB, and the data-centric, but connected, mechanism provided by direct use of JDBC.
SDO and Faces components work together to provide an easy way to create a dynamic Web application that accesses data using a method optimized for the Web. There are two data access beans that are made available as Faces components in the Palette view:
Related concepts
JavaServer Faces
Data access for Faces components
Datagraphs in WebSphere/Service Data Objects (WDO/SDO)
Mediators in WebSphere/Service Data Objects (WDO/SDO)
Related tasks
Adding components to Faces JSP pages
Deploying Web projects that use WDO/SDO
Related reference
WDO API documentation