A canonical model is a
design pattern
A design pattern is the re-usable form of a solution to a design problem. The idea was introduced by the architect Christopher Alexander and has been adapted for various other disciplines, particularly software engineering. The "Gang of Four" boo ...
used to communicate between different data formats. Essentially: create a data model which is a superset of all the others ("canonical"), and create a "translator" module or layer to/from which all existing modules exchange data with other modules. The individual modules can then be considered endpoints on an intelligent bus; the bus centralises all the data-translation intelligence.
A form of
enterprise application integration
Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the use of software and computer systems' architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications.
Overview
Enterprise application integration is an integration framework comp ...
, it is intended to reduce costs and standardize on agreed data definitions associated with integrating business systems. A canonical model is any model that is
canonical
The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical examp ...
in nature, i.e. a model which is in the simplest form possible based on a standard, application integration (EAI) solution. Most organizations also adopt a set of standards for message structure and content (message payload). The desire for consistent message payload results in the construction of an enterprise or business domain canonical model common view within a given context. Often the term canonical model is used interchangeably with integration strategy and often entails a move to a message-based integration methodology. A typical migration from point-to-point canonical data model, an enterprise design pattern which provides common data naming, definition and values within a generalized data framework. Advantages of using a canonical data model are reducing the number of data translations and reducing the maintenance effort.
Adoption of a comprehensive enterprise interfacing to message-based integration begins with a decision on the
middleware
Middleware is a type of computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue".
Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement co ...
to be used to transport messages between endpoints. Often this decision results in the adoption of an
enterprise service bus
An enterprise service bus (ESB) implements a communication system between mutually interacting software applications in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). It represents a software architecture for distributed computing, and is a special varia ...
(ESB) or enterprise application integration (EAI) solution. Most organizations also adopt a set of standards for message structure and content (message payload). The desire for consistent message payload results in the construction of an enterprise form of
XML schema
An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself. These constra ...
built from the common model objects thus providing the desired consistency and re-usability while ensuring data integrity.
See also
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Canonical schema pattern In software engineering, Canonical Schema is a design pattern, applied within the service-orientation design paradigm, which aims to reduce the need for performing data modelThe structure of the data e.g. in a database, the structure of the data con ...
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Common data model
A common data model (CDM) can refer to any standardised data model which allows for data and information exchange between different applications and data sources. Common data models aim to standardise logical infrastructure so that related applicat ...
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Enterprise information integration
Enterprise information integration (EII) is the ability to support an unified view of data and information for an entire organization. In a data virtualization application of EII, a process of information integration, using data abstraction to pr ...
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Enterprise integration
Enterprise integration is a technical field of enterprise architecture, which is focused on the study of topics such as system interconnection, electronic data interchange, product data exchange and distributed computing environments.
It is a c ...
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Information architecture
Information architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability; and an emerging ...
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List of XML schemas
This is a list of notable XML schemas in use on the Internet sorted by purpose. XML schemas can be used to create XML documents for a wide range of purposes such as syndication, general exchange, and storage of data in a standard format.
Bookmar ...
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Service-oriented architecture
In software engineering, service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an architectural style that focuses on discrete services instead of a monolithic design. By consequence, it is also applied in the field of software design where services are provide ...
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Web service
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XML schema
An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself. These constra ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Forrester Research, Canonical Model Management ForumCanonical Model, Canonical Schema, and Event Driven SOA Forrester Research, Canonical Information Modeling*
Enterprise application integration
Enterprise architecture
Enterprise modelling
Software design patterns