WebSphere Business Integration Adapters: An Adapter Development and WebSphere Business Integration Solution

56 WebSphere Business Integration Adapters

6.3 One generic business object handler for all

business objects

If the API is suitable for a metadata-driven connector and if you design business

object definitions to include metadata, you can implement a metadata-driven

business object handler. This business object handler uses the metadata to

process all requests. A business object handler can be completely

metadata-driven if the application is consistent in its design, and the metadata

follows a consistent syntax for each supported business object.

Business object definitions have specific locations for different types of

application-specific data. For example, business object attributes have a set of

properties, such as Key, Foreign Key, Required, and Type, that provide the

business object handler with information that it can use to drive business object

processing. In addition, the AppSpecificInfo

property can provide the business

object handler with application-specific information, which can specify how to

access data in the application and how to process application entities.

The AppSpecificInfo property is available for the business object definition,

attributes, and verbs. You can use the AppSpecificInfo property to:

 Discover the operation to perform on the application entity that examines the

verb which is passed in the business object.

 Obtain the application entity name (such as application table or form) that

examines the business object metadata.

 Obtain information about the back-end application properties (such as

attributes, column names, or other information) that examine the metadata of

the business object attributes.

If a business object definition contains the table name and column names, you

do not have to code those names explicitly in the business object handler.

Encoding specific application information in a business object accomplishes the

following:

 One business object handler class can perform all operations for all business

objects supported by the connector. You do not have to code a separate

business object handler for each supported business object.

 Changes to a business object definition do not require recoding the

connector, as long as the changes conform to existing metadata syntax.

Thus, you can add attributes to a business object definition, remove

attributes, or reorder attributes without recompiling or recoding the connector.