Building generic data interface components through a data object generalization pattern

In large-scale 00 business information systems, business objects generally manipulate data objects, most of which persistently reside in relational databases (RDBs). Accordingly, interfacing data objects with data tuples in legacy RDBs is one of the common, crucial programming tasks in the course of establishing business information systems. Most integrated development environments (IDEs) apply code generation techniques to facilitate this task. This article proposes a data interface component framework called Generic Data Interface Layer (GDIL) that does not rely on code generation but on a data object generalization pattern. As a result, the data interface component can be reused independently of specific IDEs as well as platforms.