Canonical Data Source

When we define SOA strategies at an enterprise level, we deal with multiple Line of Business (LOB) systems; some of them will be dealing with the same kind of business entity as well. This necessitates a Common Data Model (CDM) or Canonical Data Model.

SOA creates an environment where different types of data must work together. This makes application development complex. Service Data Object (SDO) provides a very simple programming model that addresses this issue. The key high level advantages of SDO are:

• Uniform access to data from heterogeneous sources which could be XML, RDB, POJO, SOAP, etc.
• SDO provides both a static (or strongly typed) programming model and a dynamic (or loosely typed) programming model. This provides a simple programming model without sacrificing the dynamic model needed by tools and frameworks.
• Provides Meta-data for easy introspection of data types
• Supports a disconnected model, whereby data can be retrieved from a data source via Data Access Service. The data can be modified by a client with change tracking, and applied back to the data source.
• SDO programming model is language neutral

 

References

• http://www.osoa.org
• http://www.osoa.org/display/main/Service+Data+Objects+Home+Page