IBM E02HMLL-I Implementation Guide - Page 23

Some attributes, instead of containing data, contain child business objects or arrays of child business objects. Figure 6 illustrates the structure of a Contract business object. The Line Item information in the contract is in an array of child business objects. Contract Create ID Customer ID Date Text Authorization Line Items Line-item Business Object 1 Line-item Business Object 2 Line-item Business Object 3 Figure 6. Business object with child business objects A business object that contains child business objects or arrays of child business objects is a hierarchical business object. One whose attributes contain only data is a flat business object. Application-specific and generic business objects The IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express system includes two kinds of business objects: application-specific and generic. v An application-specific business object reflects data entity attributes and the data model of a specific application or other programmatic entity. v A generic business object contains a set of business-related attributes that are common across a wide range of applications, not tied to any specific application's data model When the connector agent (through its application-specific component) detects an application event such as an update, it retrieves the appropriate data entity from the application and transforms it into an application-specific business object. Note: When this document refers to a business object whose name includes an application name, such as Oracle_Customer, it refers to an application-specific business object. An Oracle_Customer business object, for example, contains the set of information that the Oracle application stores about a customer. In another application, a customer entity might store a Chapter 1. Overview of IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express 11