Declarative View Objects

A computer program product comprising a machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one programmable processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

• generate, in a target deployment unit, a view object in a design time environment of a metadata repository, the view object being modeled on a business object of a source deployment unit, the source deployment unit comprising a set of process components of a business application that is physically decoupled from the target deployment unit;
• select a subset of attributes of the business object of the source deployment unit, the subset of attributes including at least an outbound agent and an inbound agent implemented by a generic messaging framework;
• and
• model the view object in the target deployment unit with the subset of attributes of the business object, the inbound agent of the view object for receiving a replication message from the outbound agent of the business object, the replication message including replication data for configuring the view object only with data from the business object.

A system comprising:

• at least one programmable processor associated with an application server;
• and
• a machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising:
• generate, in a target deployment unit, a view object in a design time environment of a metadata repository, the view object being modeled on a business object of a source deployment unit, the source deployment unit comprising a set of process components of a business application that is physically decoupled from the target deployment unit;
• select a subset of attributes of the business object of the source deployment unit, the subset of attributes including at least an outbound agent and an inbound agent implemented by a generic messaging framework;
• and
• model the view object in the target deployment unit with the subset of attributes of the business object, the inbound agent of the view object for receiving a replication message from the outbound agent of the business object, the replication message including replication data for configuring the view object only with data from the business object.