3.1.1 Abstract Data Model

This section describes a conceptual model of possible data organization that an implementation maintains to participate in this protocol. The described organization is provided to facilitate the explanation of how the protocol behaves. This document does not mandate that implementations adhere to this model as long as their external behavior is consistent with that described in this document.

The protocol server maintains the following data:

The protocol server maintains a collection of the following MetadataObject artifacts:

  • A collection of LobSystem

  • A collection of LobSystem properties associated with each LobSystem

  • A collection of external content types, each of which is contained in a LobSystem

The protocol server has to follow the following rules:

  • Each external content type is identified by the combination of namespace and name.

  • Each external content type has a version number.

  • An external content type can have another external content type associated with it.

  • Each external list has a GUID.

  • Each external list is associated with a folder, and each folder is not associated with more than one external list.

  • Each folder associated with an external list has a folder named Item, and each folder named Item can have a folder named Form.

  • Each form template is contained in an Item folder.

  • Each external list is based on an external content type.

  • Each external list has three special actions for creating, viewing, and updating the items of the list, and each of the actions has a URL that points to one of the Web Part Pages.