About Polymorphic Business Objects

A polymorphic business object is a business object where the set of fields for a particular record differs based on the value of a discriminator field (also known as a context segment). A polymorphic business object includes a number of fields representing global or context-sensitive segments. Global segments are available for all values of the discriminator field, while the available context-sensitive segments are dynamic based on the value of the discriminator field. Descriptive flexfields (DFFs) and extensible flexfields (EFFs) are types of polymorphic business objects.

For example, an "Expenses" business object may include a child polymorphic "ExpensesDFF" business object that defines additional fields that pertain to different types of expenses. The ExpensesDFF business object contains an "Expense Type" field that acts as a discriminator field. It also contains global segments for all records, such as "Merchant Name", as well as context-sensitive segments such as a "Check-in Date" and "Checkout Date" for lodging-related expenses.