Patent ID: 8112296

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for data transformation, implemented in a computer system, the method comprising: storing, on a memory device coupled to a processor of a computer system, a business process, wherein the business process is an executable program, the business process is configured to control a plurality of business applications, and the plurality of business applications includes at least one of a source application or a target application; receiving job profile data, wherein the job profile data is received from the source application, and the job profile data is received in a source format; transforming, using the processor of the computer system, the job profile data from the source format into a common format, wherein the transforming the job profile data into a common format uses a job profile object, the common format is defined by a job profile class, the job profile class is configured to represent a job profile, and identify a set of relationships between the job profile and a plurality of entities, and the entities are related to the job profile, and the transforming the job profile data into a common format comprises creating the job profile object by instantiating the job profile class, and invoking a function of the job profile object in accordance with the business process; transforming the job profile data from the common format into a target format of the target application, wherein the transforming the job profile data from the common format uses the job profile object; sending the job profile data in the target format to the target application; and adding a custom data element to the job profile class by retrieving a data definition schema associated with the job profile class, wherein the data definition schema comprises the custom data element, retrieving a custom data schema for custom data of a pre-defined type, locating a tag related to the custom data in the custom data schema, and adding the custom data element to the tag.