Getting Started with Business Component Modeling

Creating a diagram of business components allows you to not only quickly create a set of business components which you can then refine, but also a graphical representation of those entity objects, view objects and application modules, the relationships between them and their inheritance structures.

To model business components you need to start with a Business Components diagram, although you can subsequently add other elements like UML classes, Java classes, Enterprise JavaBeans, offline database tables, UML use cases and web services on the same diagram. For more information on creating a Business Components diagram, see Creating a Diagram of Business Components.

UML notation is used to represent the elements on your diagram. For more information, see How to Read a Diagram of Business Components.

Entity Objects, View Objects and Application Modules

Business components are created on a diagram by clicking on the Entity Object icon, or View Object icon or Application Module icon on the Business Components Component Palette for the diagram, and then clicking on the diagram where you want to create the component. The files that implement the modeled business components are are created in the location specified by your project settings. For more information, see Creating Nodes on a Diagram .

Entity object usages can be created in modeled view objects, and view object instances and application module instances can be created in modeled application modules, by right-clicking the modeled view object or application module and choosing View As | Expanded then creating the element in the expanded node on the diagram using the Entity Object Usage icon, View Object Instance icon or Application Module Instance icon on the Business Components Component Palette for the diagram. You can also drag an entity object or view object into the expanded view object or application module respectively to create an instance. For more information, see Creating Internal Nodes on a Diagram Element.

Attributes and operations can be added to a modeled entity objects and view objects by double-clicking the modeled entity object and adding the attribute using the editor or by creating the new attribute 'in-place' on the modeled entity itself. Operations can also be modeled directly on modeled entity objects on a diagram. For more information, see In-Place Creating and Editing on Diagram Elements.

Relationships Between Business Components

Inheritance structures between entity objects can also be created on a diagram of business components by using the Generalization icon on the Business Components Component Palette for the diagram. For more information, see Connecting Nodes on a Diagram.

A variety of associations can be created quickly between modeled entity object using the 1 to * Association icon, Directed 1 to 1 Association icon, Directed 1 to * Association and Directed Strong Aggregation icons on the Business Components Component Palette for the diagram. Association can be modified by double-clicking the modeled association and changing its properties. View links can be created between view objects on the diagram using the View Link icon on the Business Components Component Palette for the diagram.

Note: If you change, add to or delete from the implementation files for anything that's displayed on a diagram, those changes will be reflected on modeled representations of those business components. Conversely, any changes to the modeled business components are also made to the underlying implementation files.

Modeled UML classes can be transformed to entity objects. For more information, see Transforming Modeled Elements.

You can annotate a diagram of business components using notes, dependency relationships and URL links. For more information, see Annotating a Diagram.