Data Schemas

A data schema is a structure for organizing and classifying data in a database. It defines both the data contents and relationships. Integration Composer transforms the data in the source to the formats required by the data schema of the target database.

A data source is the actual data in a database organized in the structure defined by a data schema.

Classes

In Integration Composer, data schemas organize data into classes. A class is a group of data that has the same characteristics or properties. For example, you can define a class called 'Computer' because computers share many characteristics or properties.

Properties

A property is an attribute or feature that characterizes a class. The collection of properties assigned to a class defines the class. A class can have multiple properties. For example, objects classified as computers have the following properties: 'Hardware ID,' 'Manufacturer,' 'Model,' and 'Serial Number.'

The data schema defines the structure in which properties are stored and organizes the properties into classes. A data schema defines the formats for property data. A format might include a property name, type, and length. For example, the property 'Manufacturer' might be named Manufacturer ID. Its type is integer. Its length is 10.

In Integration Composer all properties have a name, type, and length.

The name uniquely identifies the property in a class.
The type of property indicates the format of the data. Integration Composer uses JDBC type names.
The length of a property is determined by the limit defined for the database column that corresponds to that property. You can manually change the length, but the length cannot exceed the limit set for the corresponding database column.

Some properties have specialized functions and unique characteristics that you must consider when creating mappings in Integration Composer. Key properties and reference properties have specialized functions.

Instances

Whereas a class is a group of objects that share the same properties, an instance is a specific object that actually belongs to a class. If the class 'Computer' is characterized by the properties 'Hardware ID,' 'Manufacturer,' 'Model,' and 'Serial Number,' then a specific instance of the class, the computer HQLz2310, is characterized by the properties 0399483 ('Hardware ID'), Dell ('Manufacturer'), Pentium 4 ('Model'), and 938348393 ('Serial Number').

The instances of a class contain data about an object. Databases store this data in the structures defined for the properties of the class. All instances of the same class have the same set of properties, but each instance has different values for those properties.

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