http://architecture-soa-bpm-eai.blogspot.

com/ Page 1 of 3
Tushar Jain tusjain@yahoo.com, tusjain@gmail.com

Pattern Name: Reference Object

Pattern Class: Architecture Version: 1.0
Pattern ID: Release Date: Sep 9, 2010

Table of Content

1. Pattern Name ........................................................................................... 2

2. Also Known As.......................................................................................... 2
3. Class Name.............................................................................................. 2
4. Intent ..................................................................................................... 2
5. Motivation (Forces) ................................................................................... 2
6. Applicability ............................................................................................. 2
7. Structure ................................................................................................. 2
8. Participants .............................................................................................. 2
9. Collaboration............................................................................................ 2
10. Consequences .......................................................................................... 3
11. Implementation ........................................................................................ 3
12. Sample Code............................................................................................ 3
13. Known Uses ............................................................................................. 3
14. Related Patterns ....................................................................................... 3
15. Reference ................................................................................................ 3

http://architecture-soa-bpm-eai.blogspot.com/ Page 1 of 3
http://architecture-soa-bpm-eai.blogspot.com/ Page 2 of 3
Tushar Jain tusjain@yahoo.com, tusjain@gmail.com

1. Pattern Name
Reference Object

2. Also Known As
N.A.

3. Class Name
Architecture

4. Intent
To know the meta attributes associated with any Business entity, a Reference Object
should be constructed.

Due to cost involve, Reference Object should be constructed only for limited Business
entities.

5. Motivation (Forces)
Run time access of meta attributes of a business object.

6. Applicability
In product design which need to be modifiable at deployment time or
need to be customizable.

7. Structure

N.A.

8. Participants
N.A.

9. Collaboration
N.A.

http://architecture-soa-bpm-eai.blogspot.com/ Page 2 of 3
http://architecture-soa-bpm-eai.blogspot.com/ Page 3 of 3
Tushar Jain tusjain@yahoo.com, tusjain@gmail.com

10. Consequences
Runtime access of meta attributes of an business object.

11. Implementation
Since any business entity stores its attributes in database, so using
JDBC (in case of Java) metadata facility, one can create Reference
Object. This approach is costly in terms of efforts at design as well
as runtime but always keep Business Entity and its Refence Object
in sync. This approach assumes that Business Entity uses RDBMS as
persistence mechanism.

The second approach is storing metadata data of Business Entity

explicitly using persistence layer (RDBMS or File system or
hierarchical database – LDAP, etc.). This approach is costly at
design time but saves resources at runtime. But it requires utmost
care to keep Business Entity and Reference Object in sync. To avoid
synchronization challenge, a utility can be written to read metadata
of business object from persistence layer and then write into file
system or database at design time which can be used at run time.

12. Sample Code

N.A.

13. Known Uses

N.A.

14. Related Patterns

N.A.

15. Reference
N.A.

http://architecture-soa-bpm-eai.blogspot.com/ Page 3 of 3