Work with the IBM business object framework

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Work with the IBM business object framework

The business object framework describes how data in the run time is modeled by applications, integrated into the run time, and represented in memory.
Table 1 summarizes how the basic types of data are implemented in the business object framework.

Data abstractions and the corresponding implementations
Data Abstraction Implementation Description
Instance data Business object Business objects are the primary mechanism for representing business entities, or document literal message definitions, enabling everything from a simple basic object with scalar properties to a large complex hierarchy or graph of objects. A business object is a direct corollary to the SDO DataObject concept.
Instance metadata Business graph Business graphs are wrappers that are added around a simple business object or a hierarchy of business objects to provide additional capabilities, such as carrying change summary and event summary information related to the business objects in the business graph. A business graph is a direct corollary of the SDO DataGraph concept, except that it provides more than just the single change summary header.
Type metadata Enterprise metadata
Business object type metadata
Business object type metadata is the metadata that can be added to business object definitions to enhance their value in the runtime. These metadata items are added to the business object's XML schema definition as well known xs:annotation and xs:appinfo elements.
Services Business object services (APIs) Business object services are a set of capabilities provided on top of the basic capabilities provided by Service Data Objects. Examples are services such as create, copy, equality, and serialization. These APIs are found in the com.ibm.websphere.bo package.

The IBM BPM business object framework is an extension of the SDO standard. Therefore, business objects exchanged between IBM BPM components are instances of the commonj.sdo.DataObject class. However, the IBM BPM business object framework adds several services and functions that simplify and enrich the basic DataObject functionality.
To facilitate the creation and manipulation of business objects, the WebSphere business object framework extends SDO specifications by providing a set of Java™ services. These services are part of the package named com.ibm.websphere.bo.

BOFactory: The key service that provides various ways to create instances of business objects.
BOXMLSerializer: Provides ways to "inflate" a business object from a stream or to write the content of a business object, in XML format, to a stream.
BOCopy: Provides methods that make copies of business objects ("deep" and "shallow" semantics).
BODataObject: Gives you access to the data object aspects of a business object, such as the change summary, the business graph, and the event summary.
BOXMLDocument: The front end to the service that lets you manipulate the business object as an XML document.
BOChangeSummary and BOEventSummary: Simplifies access to and manipulation of the change summary and event summary portion of a business object.
BOEquality: A service that enables you to determine whether two business objects contain the same information. It supports both deep and shallow equality.
BOType and BOTypeMetaData: These services materialize instances of the commonj.sdo Type and let you manipulate the associated metadata. Instances of Type can then be used to create business objects "by type".
BOInstanceValidator: Validates the data in a business object to see if it conforms to the XSD.

Programming model

Data Abstraction	Implementation	Description
Instance data	Business object	Business objects are the primary mechanism for representing business entities, or document literal message definitions, enabling everything from a simple basic object with scalar properties to a large complex hierarchy or graph of objects. A business object is a direct corollary to the SDO DataObject concept.
Instance metadata	Business graph	Business graphs are wrappers that are added around a simple business object or a hierarchy of business objects to provide additional capabilities, such as carrying change summary and event summary information related to the business objects in the business graph. A business graph is a direct corollary of the SDO DataGraph concept, except that it provides more than just the single change summary header.
Type metadata	Enterprise metadata Business object type metadata	Business object type metadata is the metadata that can be added to business object definitions to enhance their value in the runtime. These metadata items are added to the business object's XML schema definition as well known xs:annotation and xs:appinfo elements.
Services	Business object services (APIs)	Business object services are a set of capabilities provided on top of the basic capabilities provided by Service Data Objects. Examples are services such as create, copy, equality, and serialization. These APIs are found in the com.ibm.websphere.bo package.