IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer

Defining and transforming data

You can learn how to define business objects to contain application data, and how to create maps to transform data from one format into another so that data can be exchanged between different services. You can also learn how to import existing schemas.

• Defining data objects
  There are two types of data objects in IBM Integration Designer; business objects are containers for application (or payload) data related to business functions, such as a customer or an invoice. Business objects are based on a data-access technology called Service Data Objects. Service message objects contain business objects in addition to contextual data such as SOAP header information. The underlying structure of a business object is an XML schema definition (XSD).
• Transforming data
  When you are integrating services, you often need to transform the data into a format that the receiving service can process. Typically, interfaces and operations of disparate services are not identical, and the message from the source needs to be transformed into a format that can be accepted by the target. Or, you may want to manipulate the data that you are moving between the source and target. You can use XML maps or business object maps to transform your data.
• Create and mapping interfaces
  Interfaces are the means of exchanging data between components.
• Create relationships
  When attributes in a source and destination data type contain equivalent data that is represented differently, the transformation step employs a relationship. The relationship editor is used to model and design business integration relationships and roles.