An XML document can have either a DTD or a schema document to define its structure. The business object definitions that represent the elements in an XML document must contain information about the document's structure. To create business objects to be processed by the XML data handler, the XML data handler must be able to locate business object definitions that contain the structural information for each XML document to be processed. You can generate business object definitions for XML documents in one of the following ways:
Both these techniques involve use of the Business Object Designer tool. This section provides an overview on how to use Business Object Designer to generate business object definitions for XML documents. For a complete description of Business Object Designer, refer to the Business Object Development Guide.
The XML Object Discovery Agent (ODA) creates business object definitions for an XML document based on either its DTD or schema document. The ODA examines the DTD or schema document to obtain information about the XML document structure. It then writes the business object definitions to a file that can be loaded into the business integration system.
The XML ODA builds business object definitions that conform to the requirements of the XML data handler. The ODA adds the required ObjectEventId attribute to all business object definitions. It also adds the repository version number to the top of the business object file if you specify this, which is required to import a business object definition into the InterChange Server business integration system. These business object definitions do not usually need additional editing. However, if you need to perform edits, see Modifying information in the business object definition.
For information on how to use XML ODA, see Appendix A, Using the XML ODA. This appendix describes how to install and configure the XML ODA. It also describes how to use the XML ODA in Business Object Designer to generate business object definition. For information on launching Business Object Designer, see the Business Object Development Guide.
This section describes how to manually create business object definitions to represent XML documents. You must ensure that you correctly define the business object definition, including its attributes, and the application-specific information.
The description of XML-document format for a DTD or schema document describes business object definitions that the XML ODA builds. Table 10 shows the sections of this manual that describe the format of XML documents that have a corresponding data model to describe their schema. As described in these sections, the business object definitions conform to the requirements of the XML data handler. Therefore, you can follow these descriptions when you need to create business object definitions manually.
In the following steps, ElementTypeName is the type of the XML element represented by the business object construct (either attribute or business object). To define a business object based on an XML document:
For a top-level business object definition based on either a DTD or a schema document, the following attributes are required:
For general information about these required attributes, see Business object structure. In addition, this document provides the following
information about the structure of the top-level business object definition
based on DTDs and schema documents:
Data model | For more information |
---|---|
Document type definition (DTD) | Business object structure for DTDs |
Schema document | Required business object definitions for schema documents |
For general information about this application-specific information, see Application-specific information. In addition, this document provides the following
information about the application-specific of the business-object attributes
based on DTDs and schema documents:
Data model | For more information |
---|---|
Document type definition (DTD) | Application-specific information for XML components in DTDs |
Schema document | Application-specific information for XML compnents in schema documents |