SOA Patterns > Inventory Centralization Patterns > Schema Centralization
Schema Centralization (Erl)
How can service contracts be designed to avoid redundant data representation?
Problem
Different service contracts often need to express capabilities that process similar business documents or data sets, resulting in redundant schema content that is difficult to govern.
Solution
Select schemas that exist as physically separate parts of the service contract are shared across multiple contracts.
Application
Up-front analysis effort is required to establish a schema layer independent of and in support of the service layer.
Impacts
Governance of shared schemas becomes increasingly important as multiple services can form dependencies on the same schema definitions.
Principles
Architecture
Inventory, Service
Related Patterns in This Catalog
Canonical Schema, Contract Centralization, Service Normalization, Validation Abstraction
Related Service-Oriented Computing Goals
Increased Business and Technology Alignment, Increased Intrinsic Interoperability, Reduced IT Burden