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Pattern Name: Fragmented Object

Pattern Class: Architecture Version: 1.0
Pattern ID: Release Date:

Table of Content

1. Pattern Name ........................................................................................... 2

2. Also Known As.......................................................................................... 2
3. Class Name.............................................................................................. 2
4. Intent ..................................................................................................... 2
5. Motivation (Forces) ................................................................................... 2
6. Applicability ............................................................................................. 2
7. Structure ................................................................................................. 2
8. Participants .............................................................................................. 3
9. Collaboration............................................................................................ 3
10. Consequences .......................................................................................... 3
11. Implementation ........................................................................................ 3
12. Sample Code............................................................................................ 3
13. Known Uses ............................................................................................. 4
14. Related Patterns ....................................................................................... 4
15. Reference ................................................................................................ 4

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1. Pattern Name
Fragmented Object

2. Also Known As
N/A

3. Class Name
Architectural

4. Intent
To define a grow-able business entity. In contemporary enterprise
systems, business entities tend to grow in its scope as peripheral or
supporting systems evolve.

5. Motivation (Forces)
For example in a system one like to add one or more set of
attribute to an existing business entity. The business entity has
one set of attributes (say intrinsic set – name, description, date of
creation, date of updation, who has created, who has updated, etc)
at inception of system. Later on another set of attributes come in to
picture (say pricing details). In traditional systems one need to
modify the data structure and code of existing business entity. Over
the time period business entity become complex so the code and
data structure.

6. Applicability
This pattern is applicable whenever business entities’ full structure
is not known at inception.

7. Structure
This pattern can be looked into from various angles. First from
system’s original developers and then future developers. Original
set of developers would not like to tinker with original definition so
with code and data structure. But future developers need to add

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sets of attributes to existing business entity. More over these sets

may be related or unrelated.

8. Participants
N/A

9. Collaboration
N/A

10. Consequences
Due to usage of this patterns data model become complex but
configurable and developers have to follow certain style of coding.

11. Implementation
To understand implementation of this pattern, assume a business
entity having two or more set of attributes (say intrinsic: name,
description, date of creation etc.; pricing: cost, markup, price,
etc). To implement such case one should divide this business object
into two parts.

BE = BEi + BEp

So the data structure,

This implementation can be thought of equivalent to composition in

Object model.

12. Sample Code

N/A

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13. Known Uses

ComViva RCMS and Global Data Logistix’s XiiNG! provisioning
engine.

14. Related Patterns

N/A

15. Reference
N/A

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