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Business objects and XML Schema definitions (XSDs)

Business objects are logical constructs of XSDs (XML Schema definitions). When you create or import an XSD file, a business object is created for each typed or anonymous complexType in the XSD.

This topic uses the example of a basic XSD to show the relationship between a business object and an XSD. For detailed information, see Supported XSD and WSDL artifacts.

Consider the following example XSD:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
	targetNamespace="http://Arrays" xmlns:tns="http://Arrays">
	<xsd:complexType name="IDType">
		<xsd:sequence>
			<xsd:element minOccurs="0" name="id_type" type="xsd:int"></xsd:element>
		</xsd:sequence>
	</xsd:complexType>
	<xsd:complexType name="NameType">
		<xsd:sequence>
			<xsd:element minOccurs="0" name="name_type" type="xsd:string">
			</xsd:element>
		</xsd:sequence>
	</xsd:complexType>
	<xsd:complexType name="EmployeeType">
		<xsd:sequence>
			<xsd:element name="id" type="tns:IDType" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
			<xsd:element name="name" type="tns:NameType" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
		</xsd:sequence>
	</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:schema>

When the above XSD is imported or saved in the XML Schema editor, three business objects are created, one for each complexType defined in the XSD. The business objects are created in the Data Types category in the Business Integration view.

A field is created for each element in the business object. EmployeeType has two fields, id of type IDType, and name of type NameType .

The attributes of each element are shown in the Properties view of the field. The Properties view of field id shows that the field is an array, as indicated by the maxOccurs="unbounded" attribute in the XSD.

In the business object editor, you can click the toggle between two views; the default graph view, or a table view. To view and edit the minOccurs or maxOccurs attribute of an element, switch to the table view by clicking the table view icon in the toolbar:

Defining data objects