Service Data Objects is a technology that allows

heterogeneous Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts often used in the sciences and statistics relating to the uniformity of a substance or organism. A material or image that is homogeneous is uniform in composition or character (i.e. color, shape, siz ...

data to be accessed in a uniform way. The SDO specification was originally developed in 2004 as a joint collaboration between

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( BEA) and IBM and approved by the

Java Community Process The Java Community Process (JCP), established in 1998, is a formalized mechanism that allows interested parties to develop standard technical specifications for Java technology. Anyone can become a JCP Member by filling a form available at thJCP w ...

i
JSR 235
Version 2.0 of the specification was introduced in November 2005 as a key part of the Service Component Architecture.

Relation to other technologies

Originally, the technology was known as Web Data Objects, or WDO, and was shipped in

IBM WebSphere Application Server WebSphere Application Server (WAS) is a software product that performs the role of a web application server. More specifically, it is a software framework and middleware that hosts Java-based web applications. It is the flagship product with ...

5.1 and IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer 5.1.2. Other similar technologies are JDO, EMF,

JAXB Java XML Binding (JAXB; formerly Java Architecture for XML Binding) is a software framework that allows Java EE developers to map Java classes to XML representations. JAXB provides two main features: the ability to ''marshal'' Java objects in ...

and ADO.NET.

Design

Service Data Objects denote the use of

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data structures that facilitate communication between structural tiers and various service-providing entities. They require the use of a

tree structure A tree structure, tree diagram, or tree model is a way of representing the hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphical form. It is named a "tree structure" because the classic representation resembles a tree, although the chart is gener ...

with a

root node In computer science, a tree is a widely used abstract data type that represents a hierarchical tree structure with a set of connected nodes. Each node in the tree can be connected to many children (depending on the type of tree), but must be con ...

and provide traversal mechanisms (breadth/depth-first) that allow client programs to navigate the elements. Objects can be static (fixed number of fields) or dynamic with a map-like structure allowing for unlimited fields. The specification defines

meta-data Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...

for all fields and each object graph can also be provided with change summaries that can allow receiving programs to act more efficiently on them.

Developers

The specification is now being developed by IBM,

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SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separa ...

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Sybase Sybase, Inc. was an enterprise software and services company. The company produced software to manage and analyze information in relational databases, with facilities located in California and Massachusetts. Sybase was acquired by SAP in 2010; ...

, Xcalia,

Software AG Founded in 1969, Software AG is an enterprise software company with over 10,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries. The company is the second largest software vendor in Germany, and the seventh largest in Europe. Software AG is traded on t ...

within the

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Member Section Open CSA since April 2007. Collaborative work and materials remain on the collaboration platform of Open SOA, an informal group of actors of the industry.

Implementations

The following SDO products are available: *

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HydraSDO * Xcalia (for Java and .Net) *

(Data Service Integrator) , Oracle Data Service Integrator
/ref> * IBM (Virtual XML Garden) * IBM (

WebSphere Process Server IBM WebSphere refers to a brand of proprietary computer software products in the genre of enterprise software known as "application and integration middleware". These software products are used by end-users to create and integrate applications wi ...

) There are open source implementations of SDO from: * The Eclipse Persistence Services Project (

EclipseLink EclipseLink is the open source Eclipse Persistence Services Project from the Eclipse Foundation. The software provides an extensible framework that allows Java developers to interact with various data services, including databases, web services, ...

) * The

Apache Tuscany Apache Tuscany was an open-source software project for developing and running software applications using a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Description This lightweight runtime is designed to be embedded in, or provisioned to, a number of di ...

project for Java and C++ * The fcl-sdo library included with

FreePascal Free Pascal Compiler (FPC) is a compiler for the closely related programming-language dialects Pascal and Object Pascal. It is free software released under the GNU General Public License, witexception clausesthat allow static linking against it ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Specification versions and history can be found on * Latest materials a
OASIS Open CSA

Service Data Objects

SDO Specifications at OpenSOA

Introducing Service Data Objects for PHP

Computer networking Java specification requests Persistence Service-oriented (business computing)