How to Define Business Objects

A business object is a logical object that covers business events or (parts of) a business process (tasks). A business object, therefore, provides a means of clustering the functionality offered by the application. Transactions can be performed with/on business objects.

From a technical point of view, a business object consists of data elements (tables, relationships, domains), rule/process elements (business rules), and presentation features (windows, dialogs).

To define business objects:

1.	From the menu bar, choose TeamWork, Definition, Business Objects or double-click Business Objects in the catalog.

The Business Objects window appears.

2.	Supply a description for each business object, including:

·	A clear definition of the concept.

·	The business events that are related to the concept (e.g. customer orders items, or customer cancels order).

·	Tasks related to handling the business object (order handling, canceling.)

·	Optionally you can add synonyms and examples to furthermore explain the concept.

3.	Assign the business object to the business area it is primarily related to and give it a short name (abbreviation) if necessary.

4.	Cluster business objects according to your requirements using the Object Type field. For example, you could group objects according to the system they originally stem from.

5.	Add the "owned" tables to the business object via the Structure button, or via the Data contents option on the Related menu.

6.	Indicate which additional owned/shared data elements have to be added (relationships, domains, rules).

NOTE:

If you also want to add the relationships and/or domains of shared tables, add the shared tables as well. You can also do this in two steps:

·	Add all child relationships to the owned tables.

·	Add all shared tables, and indicate that all "internal" relationships must be added as well.

The data contents will now be all the child relationships of the owned tables, plus all internal relationships between owned and shared tables.

7.	From the menu bar, choose Special, Add Data Contents.

The appropriate extra records will now be inserted into the data contents of the business object.

8.	Indicate whether the automatically inserted records are owned, or shared.

9.	Save your changes.

In the Windows Designer, you can assign designed GUI classes (info boxes, dialogs and controls) to the Business Object. GUI classes are related to Business Objects using a system of Tasks. See the USoft Windows Designer help for details.