How ADF business components work

When you create an ADF business component (entity object, view object, and so on), JDeveloper initially creates only an XML file describing the object (which table, which attributes, and so on). Part of the XML file for an entity might look like as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252" ?>
...
<Entity
  xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/bc4j"
  Name="Film"
  Version="11.1.2.64.36"
  DBObjectType="table"
  DBObjectName="sakila.film"
...
  <Attribute
    Name="FilmId"
    IsNotNull="true"
    ColumnName="film_id"
    SQLType="SMALLINT"
    Type="java.lang.Integer"
    ColumnType="SMALLINT"
    TableName="sakila.film"
    PrimaryKey="true">
...
</Entity>

At runtime, the ADF framework automatically creates and runs the Java classes that read these XML files. For example, ADF creates an instance of the oracle.jbo.server.EntityImpl class whenever ADF needs to work with an entity object. The specific instance of the class reads the...