The Objects in a Business Object Model

Objects are added to a business object model in the Business Object Model Editor much as panes and controls are added to forms, either by clicking the desired object in the palette and then clicking in the desired location on the canvas of the editor, or by dragging and dropping the object onto the canvas.

Objects that can be placed into a business object model include the Elements (Package, Class, Primitive Type, and Enumeration), Children (Attribute and Enum Literal), and Relationships (Composition).

The objects in the palette are of several kinds, each distinguished by an icon and color, which appears (as an aid to the identifying the object) in various places throughout the TIBCO Business Studio interface, including in the title bars of the objects on the canvas. The objects most important for creating complex types to be used in forms modeling are described in this section.

Elements

Class
 A container for a complex data object. Classes contain children, such as attributes and enum literals. A class from the BOM can later be specified as the type for a data field in the Forms Editor.
Primitive Type
 An object of one of the BOM Primitive Types ( Boolean, Date, Time, and so on), or of the type of a previously-defined primitive type object.
Enumeration
 A data type that describes a set of allowed values. By selecting this type, you can specify a set of enumerated values. For example, an enumeration called Color might have the values Red, Blue, and Green.

An enumeration from the BOM can be included as the type of an attribute for a class in the BOM or be specified later as the type for a data field in the Forms Editor. On the default generated form, this type will be rendered by default as an optionlist. (The control type could later be changed in the form control’s Properties view to a radiogroup, or other control type.)

Children

Attribute
 Attributes are data members that make up a class. By default, new attributes are created with the primitive BOM type text. A different data type can be chosen in the attribute’s Properties view, either another primitive type, or an existing class or enumeration. Each attribute type ends up corresponding to a different control type in a generated form.

The attributes in a class can be re-ordered in the Attributes tab of the class’s Properties view using the up and down arrows. Their order in the BOM determines the order in which they appear in the default form.

Enum Literal
  These are the values within an enumeration. For example, an enumeration called Color might have the enum literals with the names Red, Blue, and Green.

The enum literals in an enumeration can be re-ordered in the Enum Literals tab of the enumeration’s Properties view using the up and down arrows. Their order in the BOM determines the order in which they appear in the default form.

Relationships

Composition
 This relationship indicates that instances of the child class is wholly contained within instances of the parent class.