Enterprise Objects Framework (EOF) White Paper


The NeXT Enterprise Objects Framework couples relational databases with objects in the NEXTSTEP application environment. Using the EO Framework, developers can forge enterprise data into something far more valuable: enterprise objects. Enterprise objects, such as customer and sales order, integrate business data with the business policies that makes the data meaningful:

a customer credit object defines not only a credit rating, but the rules by which it is computed. Enterprise objects do not change the structure of existing databases or threaten the applications that depend on them. The EO Framework works today with Oracle and Sybase databases, and its design is open to others.

Enterprise objects are first class citizens of the most respected object-oriented user and developer environment: NEXTSTEP. They are integrated with the Project Builder and Interface Builder graphical development tools, they can be reused in application after application; they can be refined by subclassing. And they can be distributed among heterogeneous servers with NeXT’s Portable Distributed Objects system.

As is usual in the NEXTSTEP environment, simple enterprise object applications can be
constructed without coding. Developers with special requirements will find an accommodating architecture “under the hood” that separates functions so developers don’t have to understand everything to do anything. Even the most sophisticated applications can begin as simple ones, getting the basics working first without programming, then coding additional features in easy-to-manage increments.

For the full article read below:
EOFWhitepaper