The Service Data Object (SDO) Pattern For Rational Software Architect
As I was architecting some software lately, I noticed that the DeveloperWorks Reusable Asset directory had all the Enterprise and Security patterns, but the SDO pattern was sadly missing.
The Service Data Object is one of the most powerful tools in abstracting any data from it’s datasource, and is used heavily by enterprise architects and developers in Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) and in DAO patterns where you may have different data sources and abstraction is key. The SDO gives you built-in ChangeSummary ability, so that you can automatically update your datasource or XML with new data after you’ve finished using the SDO! Also, the SDO itself is serializable.
I am currently finishing an article about SDO and how to create a poor-man’s SOA from existing Business Objects using the SDO. Look for that somewhere soon.
In Rational Software Architect, having patterns in your Pattern Repository that you can drag and drop in to your Analysis or Design diagrams is essential to ensuring you’ve designed your own products correctly, and that you have the best representation of the pattern in your environment. With that in mind, I have recreated in complete detail the Service Data Object pattern here so that many SOA and DAO developers and architects can simply import it in to their RSA through Import –> RAS Asset and use it.
About The Pattern
I have included documentation from the ServiceDataObject specification Version 2.0 and have relied on several IBM and EMF document sources from DeveloperWorks and the SDO specification itself to create one pattern that seems to take in all the various text based and UML based examples of this pattern.
The completeness of this pattern is very important, so if you find anything wrong or would like to make suggestions either edit the included java file and send it along or comment to this thread.
This is an example of how it should look in your design document after you have filled out the pattern template completely and dragged the classes on to your design.
Click for larger view above.
Because of my current project name, the pattern will appear under Maestro -> Core Patterns, but you are free to copy / paste it where you like after import.
Download Files
Here is the Java file and the RAS file if you would like to do your own patterns or see how I made the associations I did above. To use the RAS file, simply do an Import... RAS Asset in your Rational Software Architect product.
August 3rd, 2006 at 4:45 pm
[...] Although I developed the architecture of the SOA migration, including an inventive strategy to wrap existing non-SOA capable services to create custom SDOs for our ESB (some of which is hinted at when I published my SDO pattern for Rational Software Architect), the primary pain has been experienced by our Integration Team who are trying to get Websphere Process Server and it’s various services to work according to our designs. It is here, in the constant teleconferences with IBM in nose-bleed level support tiers, that we are getting the most reality. [...]
January 24th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
i think your shooting at fly with a cannon, why do so hardcore stuff if you’re not sure that this will ever be extended - I prefer refactoring
April 24th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
[...] If you are looking for my particular experience on how SDOs and the IBM EMF framework that contains them works against the large ACORD schema, I can say that we have had some problems with the fact that the ACORD model is not very well structured (design pattern is certainly not Russian Doll) but it seems to work fine in Websphere Process Server and other technologies. You can find my critique of Websphere Process Server and ACORD here and the SDO design pattern plugin I wrote for Rational Software Architect here. [...]
May 25th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
[...] If you are looking for my particular experience on how SDOs and the IBM EMF framework that contains them works against the large ACORD schema, you can find my critique of Websphere Process Server and ACORD here and the SDO design pattern plugin I wrote for Rational Software Architect here. [...]