Relationship Service
This service allows for the explicit definition of relationships among objects. Relationships are defined in terms of type, roles within the relationship, and the cardinality of each role. Objects fulfill a role when they participate in a relationship. You can define an agent/proxy relationship, for example, in which a single object fulfills the agent role, and multiple objects serve as proxies for that agent.
The Relationship
and Role
interfaces are at the heart of the service. A
RelationshipFactory
is used to create
Relationships
, and similarly for the
RoleFactory
. A
RelationshipIterator
can iterate through the
relationships a given object plays roles in. In addition to these
generic relationship interfaces, the service also provides several
specific relationship types in their own modules. Object graphs can
be created using the interfaces in the CosGraphs
module, containment relationships can be created using the
CosContainment
module, and reference
relationships are defined using the CosReference
module.
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