Using business objects to manage the data in your process provides you the following benefits:

• Simpler Processes: Using business objects reduces the quantity of process data objects in your process. This makes your process simpler and easier to read.

• Coupling Reduction: If your process has fewer data objects, the subprocesses and activities that compose it, require less parameters.

• Re-use: You can use a business object you defined for a particular process in other processes that do not necessarily belong to the same project. Reusing business objects can dramatically reduce the development time of your project. You can also reuse the data and behavior defined in a business object within the same project, using business object inheritance. For more information about inheritance, see Introduction to Business Object Inheritance and Working with Business Object Inheritance.

• Easy Maintenance: If you update or fix a bug in a business object all the processes using it benefit from those changes.

• Parallel Development: After you agree on a certain interface for the business objects in your process, some members of your team can work on the development of those business objects while others work on the development of the process.

• Unit Testing: You can test each of the business objects in your process separately. Unit Testing reduces the complexity of your test cases and improves significantly the quality of your project.

When you name a business object you should respect the following rules:

• Use one or more nouns, or nouns modified by adjectives.

• Do not start the name with a number.

• Use capital letters only to distinguish internal words.

• Keep names simple and descriptive.

• Use whole words; avoid using acronyms unless they are widely known.

1. Right-click a user-defined module in the business catalog.
2. Select New and then select Business Object.
3. Enter a name to identify the new business object.

   Note:

   You cannot repeat a name within the same module. However you can assign the same name to business objects in different modules.

4. Click OK.

The business object appears in the business catalog. You can use this business object to define the type of the following elements in your BPMN process:

• Arguments in data associations

• Process data objects

• Project data objects

You can modify an existing business object by:

• Adding attributes

  See How to Add a Business Object Attribute

• Removing attributes

  See How to Remove a Business Object Attribute

• Adding methods

  See How to Add a Business Object Method

• Removing methods

  See How to Remove a Business Object Method

• Adding documentation

  See How to Document a Business Object Attribute

  See How to Document a Business Object Method

1. In the Applications window, right-click the business object you want to delete.
2. Select Delete.

   A confirmation message appears.

3. Click OK.

Oracle BPM Studio removes the business object from the business catalog. If there are any flow objects in your process that use the removed business object, then you must remove these references manually.

1. Edit the business object.
2. In the business object editor, in the business object Editor, click the Edit button next to the Documentation field.
3. Add the documentation for the business object.

   See Introduction to the Documentation Editor, for details on how to create and edit documentation.

4. Click Close.

The documentation is available for other process developers to read and modify.

1. Add a process data object to your process. Use the business object as the type of the data object.

   See How to Add a Process Data Object, for information on how to add a process data object.

   Note:

   When selecting the type of the data object use the Browse More Types... button to display the complete list of types. Then select <Component> to display the list of available business objects.

2. Initialize the value of the data object in the process using a Script Task or Data Associations.

The data object you defined has the structure defined in the business object. The type of the data object is the name of the business object. For example, if you define a business object SalesQuote and then create a data object that uses this business object as its type, then the type of the data object is SalesQuote.

You can assign values to the data objects that use these types using data associations and script tasks.

1. Right-click a user-defined module.
2. Select New and then select Business Object.

   The Create Business Object Dialog appears.

3. Enter a name to identify the new business object.
4. Select Based on External Type.
5. Click the Browse button next to the External Type field or add a new XML schema following the procedure described in How to add an XML Schema to Your BPM Project.
6. Select the external type from which to create the new business object.

You cannot modify or add attributes to the business object. The structure of the business object is based on the structure of the XML schema element or type.

1. In the Create Business Object Dialog, select the Based on External Schema option.
2. Click the Schema Browser button.

   The Type Chooser dialog box appears.

3. In the upper right corner, click the Import Schema Files button.

   The Import Schema File dialog box appears.

4. Click the Browse Resources button next to the URL field.

   The SOA Resource Browser appears.

5. Browse your file system and select a schema file.
6. Select Copy to Project.
7. Click OK.

   If the XML schema contains references to other types a dialog box to confirm their import appears.

   The Browse Resources dialog box closes and the Type Chooser dialog box appears.

8. Select an element to use as the base of your business object.

The Schema Browser copies the selected XML schema to the Schemas directory in your project. You can use it to create new business objects without having to re-add it

1. In the Applications window right-click the business object where you want to add the attribute.
2. Select New and then select Attribute.

   Note:

   Another alternative for the previous steps is editing the business object and clicking the Add button in the Attributes section.

3. Enter a name to identify the new attribute.

   Note:

   You cannot use the following reserved words for attribute names.

   abstract, any, as, assert, boolean, break, byte, case, catch, char, class, const, continue, def, default, do, double, else, enum, extends, false, final, finally, float, for, goto, if, implements, import, instanceof, int, interface, long, native, new, null, package, private, protected, public, return, short, static, strictfp, super, switch, synchronized, this, threadsafe, throw, throws, transient, true, try, void, volatile, while

4. From the type list, select a type for the new attribute, or click the Browse More Types button to select a complex type.

   Note:

   To use the array type, click the Browse More Types button, select the type of the array and select the Array check box.

5. Click OK.

1. Edit the business object that contains the attribute you want to remove.
2. In the Attributes section, select the attribute you want to remove.
3. Click the Remove button at the top of the table.

   A confirmation message appears.

4. Click OK.

1. Edit the business object that contains the attribute you want document.
2. In the Attributes section, expand the business object attribute you want to document.
3. Click the Edit Documentation button next to the Description field.

   The Documentation Dialog appears.

4. Add the text to document the functionality of the selected attribute.

   See Introduction to the Documentation Editor, for details on how to create and edit documentation.

The documentation is available for other process developers to read and modify

1. Open the business object.
2. In the Methods section, click the Add Method button.

   The Method dialog box appears.

3. Enter a name to identify the method.
4. Click OK.

   The new method appears in the Methods section.

5. Expand the method and add the script code in the text area that appears.

   For more information on BPM Scripting, see Writing BPM Scripts.

6. Optionally you can change the signature, see How to Change the Signature of Business Object Method.

1. Open the business object that contains the method in the Business Object editor.
2. Expand the Methods section.
3. Expand the method that you want to modify.
4. Click the Change Signature button located next to the Remove button.

   The Change Signature dialog box appears.

5. You can edit the following elements of the method signature:

   • the name of the method

   • the type of the return parameter

   • add, remove or modify input arguments

1. Open the business object that contains the method you want to remove, in the Business Object editor.
2. Expand the Methods section.
3. Click the Remove button for the method you want to remove.

1. Edit the business object that contains the method you want document.
2. In the Methods section, expand the business object method you want to document.
3. Click the Edit Documentation button next to the Description field.

   The Documentation Dialog appears.

4. Add the text to document the functionality of the selected method.

   See Introduction to the Documentation Editor, for details on how to create and edit documentation.

1. In the Applications window, right-click the business object.
2. Select Export.

   The Select Object File dialog box appears.

3. Select a directory where to store the exported business object.
4. In the File Name field, enter a name for the exported business object.
5. Click Save.

   The exported business object file is stored to the selected directory.

1. In the Applications window, right-click the Business Catalog node.
2. Select Import Business Objects.

   The Select Object File dialog box appears.

3. Select the file that contains the exported business objects.
4. Click Open.

   The business objects contained in the selected file appear in the business catalog.

The child business object can re-define the methods defined in the parent object, assigning them a different behavior specific to that child business object. The input arguments and return parameters of the re-defined method must match the ones in the method from the parent object.

The child business object is a sub-type of the parent business object. This means that you can define a data object using the type of the parent business object and then assign it an instance of the child business object. When you do this, you only have access to the attributes and methods defined in the parent business object. However, those methods that were re-defined in the child business object, behave in the way they were defined in the child object.

A business object can have multiple methods with the same name but different sets of arguments. The runtime engine decides which method to run based on the arguments passed when invoking the method.

The child business object can define an attribute of the same name and type of an attribute defined in the parent object.

You can mark a business object as abstract to indicate that it only defines data and methods to reuse in child business objects, but it does not make sense to create an instance of this business object. Marking it as abstract ensures that you cannot create an instance of this business object.

1. In the Applications window, right-click the business object you want to use as the parent business object.
2. Select Create Child Object.

   The Create Business Object dialog box appears.

3. Enter a name and select a destination module.
4. Click OK.

   The Business Object editor with the child business object opens. Note that there is a parent field that indicates which is the parent object.

   Note:

   You can also define a child object by selecting its parent object for an existing business object.

1. Open the business object you want to mark as abstract in the Business Object editor.
2. Select the Abstract check box.