Oracle BPEL Process Manager supports dual data forms: DOM and SDO. You can interchange the usage of DOM-based and SDO-based variables within the same business process, even within the same expression. The Oracle BPEL Process Manager data framework automatically converts back and forth between DOM and SDO forms.

By using the entity variable XPath rewrite capabilities, Oracle BPEL Process Manager enables some XPath features (for example, variable reference and function calls) that the basic SDO specification does not support. However, there are other limitations on the XPath used with SDO-based variables (for example, there is no support for and, or, and not).

The following example shows XML-to-SDO conversion:

<assign>
        <copy>
            <from>
   <ns0:dept xmlns:ns0="http://sdo.sample.service/types/"
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <ns0:Deptno>10</ns0:Deptno>
      <ns0:Dname>ACCOUNTING</ns0:Dname>
      <ns0:Loc>NEW YORK</ns0:Loc>
      <ns0:Emp>
         <ns0:Empno>7782</ns0:Empno>
         <ns0:Ename>CLARK</ns0:Ename>
         <ns0:Job>MANAGER</ns0:Job>
         <ns0:Mgr>7839</ns0:Mgr>
         <ns0:Hiredate>1981-06-09</ns0:Hiredate>
         <ns0:Sal>2450</ns0:Sal>
         <ns0:Deptno>10</ns0:Deptno>
      </ns0:Emp>
      <ns0:Emp>
         <ns0:Empno>7839</ns0:Empno>
         <ns0:Ename>KING</ns0:Ename>
         <ns0:Job>PRESIDENT</ns0:Job>
         <ns0:Hiredate>1981-11-17</ns0:Hiredate>
         <ns0:Sal>5000</ns0:Sal>
         <ns0:Deptno>10</ns0:Deptno>
      </ns0:Emp>
      <ns0:Emp>
         <ns0:Empno>7934</ns0:Empno>
         <ns0:Ename>MILLER</ns0:Ename>
         <ns0:Job>CLERK</ns0:Job>
         <ns0:Mgr>7782</ns0:Mgr>
         <ns0:Hiredate>1982-01-23</ns0:Hiredate>
         <ns0:Sal>1300</ns0:Sal>
         <ns0:Deptno>10</ns0:Deptno>
      </ns0:Emp>
   </ns0:dept>
            </from>
            <to variable="deptVar_s" />
        </copy>
</assign>

The following example illustrates copying from an XPath expression of an SDO variable to a DOM variable:

<assign>
        <!-- copy from an XPath expression of an SDO variable to DOM variable -->
        <copy>
            <from expression="$deptVar_s/hrtypes:Emp[2]" />
            <to variable="empVar_v" />
        </copy>
        <!-- copy from an XPath expression of an DOM variable to SDO variable -->
        <copy>
            <from expression="$deptVar_v/hrtypes:Emp[2]" />
            <to variable="empVar_s" />
        </copy>
        <!-- insert a DOM based data into an SDO variable -->
        <bpelx:insertAfter>
            <bpelx:from variable="empVar_v" />
            <bpelx:to variable="deptVar_s" query="hrtypes:Emp" />
        </bpelx:insertAfter>
        <!-- insert a SDO based data into an SDO variable at particular location,
              no XML conversion is needed  -->
        <bpelx:insertBefore>
            <bpelx:from expression="$deptVar_s/hrtypes:Emp[hrtypes:Sal = 1300]" />
            <bpelx:to variable="deptVar_s" query="hrtypes:Emp[6]" />
         </bpelx:insertBefore>
</assign>

The following example shows SDO Data Removal:

<assign>
         <bpelx:remove>
            <bpelx:target variable="deptVar_s" query="hrtypes:Emp[2]" />
        </bpelx:remove>
</assign>