PATH Documentation > WebObjects 4.5 > EOF Tools and Techniques

Introduction

One of the ingredients in all Enterprise Objects Framework applications is a model. A model defines, in entity-relationship terms, the mapping between your enterprise objects and a relational database. The EOModeler application, being the tool you use to create and maintain models, has a prominent place in the suite of applications you use to develop your Enterprise Objects Framework applications.

You use EOModeler to:

Read the data dictionary from a database to create a default model, which can then be tailored to suit the needs of your application.

Specify enterprise object classes for the entities in your model.
Generate source code files for the enterprise object classes you specify.
Define fetch specifications (queries) that you can invoke by name in your applications.
Create and drop databases and database tables.

This book describes EOModeler and the techniques you use to define models that work effectively in Enterprise Objects Framework applications.

For more general information on Enterprise Objects Framework and on creating applications that use it, see the book Enterprise Objects Framework Developer's Guide.