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Business object attributes

Business object attributes define the content of a business object and are built from the list of columns in the database object.

A business object is simply a container for the data specified in the attributes. Each attribute has a name, type, cardinality, and several other properties. The external service wizard sets the attribute name to the name of the column. The adapter adds the attribute cardinality, type, and application-specific information. The structure of the data in the database is defined by the business object, but data in the database is in the business object attributes.

Table 1 lists the properties of a business object attribute and describes their interpretation and settings.

Attribute properties
Properties Interpretation and settings
Cardinality An integer specifying the cardinality of a business object. Each business object attribute that represents a child or an array of child business objects has the value of single or multiple (an unbounded integer) cardinality.

In both single- and multiple-cardinality relationships, the relationship between the parent and child business objects is described by the application-specific information of the key attribute in the business object storing the relationship.

Foreign Key When arrays of child business objects whose cardinality is n are retrieved, foreign keys are used in the WHERE clause of SELECT statements.

The RetrieveAll operation overrides the use of keys and foreign keys.

The adapter does not support specifying an attribute that represents a child business object as a foreign key.

Name This property represents the unique name of the attribute, if it is a simple attribute, or the name of the business object, if it is a child business object.

MinOccurs
MaxOccurs

If the column is not a primary key and is not null able, the MinOccurs and MaxOccurs attributes are required, and their values are set to at least 1.
Primary Key Indicates whether this attribute is a primary key. At least one simple attribute in each business object must be specified as the primary key.

If the primary key property is set to true for a simple attribute, the adapter adds that attribute to the WHERE clause of the SELECT statement and SQL UPDATE statements that it generates while processing the business object. The RetrieveAll operation overrides the use of primary and foreign keys.

The adapter does not support specifying an attribute that represents a child business object or an array of child business objects as a primary key attribute.

Required Specifies whether an attribute must contain a value. If this property is set to true for a container whose cardinality is single (1), then the adapter requires that the parent business object contain a child business object for this attribute. Business objects that are passed to the adapter for Create, Update, and Delete operations must also contain a child business object. Cardinality is single (1) for simple attributes and multiple (n) for container attributes. The adapter causes a Create operation to fail if a business object does not have a valid value or a default value for a required attribute. It also fails if no data is available upon retrieval from the database for this object.
Type For simple attributes, this property specifies the type of the attribute, such as Integer, String, Date, Timestamp, Boolean, Double, or Float. The supported types for simple attributes and their mapping to the Oracle type of a database object are described in Table 2.

For attributes that specify a child business object, this property specifies the name of the business object.

The type of each database object, returned as the Oracle metadata, maps to the business object attribute types as listed in Table 2. Only the Oracle types listed are supported by the adapter. Any columns with types that are not listed are not added to the business object. An informational message is produced explaining the problem, for example, The column named xxxx in the table named yyyy is not of a supported type and is not added to the business object.

The default data type mapping varies based on the different Oracle JDBC driver versions. If the Oracle metadata does not map to the same data type during the configuration of the Oracle database objects, select the appropriate data type manually in the Specify the Configuration Properties for 'object' window. After the generation of the business object, if you find the Oracle metadata not mapped to the same business object attribute type, update the attribute data type manually in the XSD file for the business object.

Oracle metadata column type and business object attribute types
Oracle metadata column type Business object attribute type

CHAR
LONG
VARCHAR2

String
NUMBER Decimal
TIMESTAMP DateTime (String data type is displayed by default)
DATE Date (String data type is displayed by default)

FLOAT
Double
BLOB hexBinary
CLOB String

NCHAR
NVARCHAR2

String

RAW
LONG RAW

hexBinary
STRUCT or ARRAY The adapter processes these data types as child business objects of the table or query business objects.

The adapter supports complex types for the Oracle table and query business objects only. If the table contains any complex data type, such as an array, structure, nested structure or table, the type name and the sub attribute details are also automatically discovered and displayed.

The adapter treats an empty complex column as null irrespective of setting it to null or unset.

BOOLEAN The adapter supports the boolean data type for SP/SF with Record type parameter.

Business object information


Related concepts:

Business object hierarchies