IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Services and service-related functions > Access external services with adapters > Configure and using adapters > IBM WebSphere Adapters > FTP > Overview of IBM WebSphere Adapter for FTP > Technical overview

Business objects

A business object is a structure that consists of data, the action to be performed on the data, and additional instructions, if any, for processing the data. The data can represent either a business entity, such as an invoice or an employee record, or unstructured text.


How the adapter uses business objects

The adapter uses business objects to send data to or obtain data from the FTP server. During inbound operations, the adapter collects information from an event record created in a native format, convert it to a business object, and forward it to a service. For outbound operations, this process happens in reverse. The adapter receives a business object from a service, creates an event record from the details it finds in the business object, and then sends the event record to the FTP server.


How data is represented in business objects

Business objects are created using the business object editor in IBM Integration Designer, which provides a graphical view of your business objects. As shown in the following illustration, a business object consists of a set of fields and their values. This is a customer business object. As you can see, it records name, address, and phone number information for a customer record. This example uses string values, but many other values are supported by the business object editor.

Figure 1. How data is represented in business objects


How business objects are created

You can create business objects by using the external service wizard or the business object editor, both of which can be launched from IBM Integration Designer.

If you have defined XSD files using the business object editor before starting the external service wizard, the adapter creates business objects from these schemas. For instructions on how to use the business object editor to create business objects, see http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/dmndhelp/v8r0m1/index.jsp. After you create your business objects, you can use the business object editor to define the hierarchy of the business objects.


Business graphs

During adapter configuration, you can optionally choose to generate a business graph. In version 6.0.2, each top-level business object is contained in a business graph, which includes a verb that an application can use to specify additional information about the operation to be performed. Beginning version 7.0, business graphs are optional; they are required only when you are adding business objects to a module created with an earlier version.

If business graphs exist, they are processed, but the verb is ignored.

Technical overview


Related reference:

Business object information