From a development perspective, it is important to further
refine the definition of what a business object is and how it manifests
in software.
Business objects can be categorized in the following ways:
- Solution domain objects
- Define the entities that make up a solution or application. Solution
domain objects are understood by the business users, and often map
to physical objects in the real world, but cannot map to objects in
code.
- Implementation objects
- The objects that are manifested as code, for example, a Java™ class. The following points
describe examples of implementation objects:
- FileNet® P8 objects
- Implementation objects that are represented as a set of Java classes within FileNet APIs. These objects include
Document, Folder, WorkflowDefinition, WorkObject, ClassDescription,
and more. These objects are used to manipulate data that is stored
in the databases and file systems that are managed by Content Platform Engine. FileNet P8 tools make it easy to
customize the behavior of these objects in graphical user interfaces.
For example, as defined earlier in this document, new types of documents
that have custom properties and default security can be created without
custom programming. In many cases, using the platform objects is sufficient
for building applications.
- Application objects
- Implementation objects that solve specific business needs. These
objects are often an aggregation of the FileNet P8 objects and are typically
run in the classic business tier of a web application as Java objects. These objects can also use core
application server capabilities, such as JDBC, and interact with packaged
applications or other custom components that are developed in-house.
Application developers typically create application objects by creating
new Java classes or subclassing
the Java classes delivered in
the platform.