Technical attributes
A technical attribute represents a property of a data object or data type and may be restricted by a technical range (in terms of an enumeration, a data type, or a data object) or by a business range (in terms of a reference object or a data domain).
Transformations can be used to connect these technical attributes with the corresponding business attributes. Technical attributes may be computed dynamically.
Add technical attributes
Technical attributes are specified in a data model in the subpanel of a data object or data type.
A new technical attribute is added by clicking the tab "Attributes" and the icon "+" (or by selecting "Add Attribute..." in the menu).
It is mandatory to assign a label to the technical attribute. In addition, an order and a title can be specified. A technical range (in terms of an enumeration, a data type, or a data object) or a business range (in terms of a reference object or a data domain) may be defined, if required.
A technical attribute of a data type cannot have a data object as its range.
Data objects or data types can be nested, if a technical attribute has a range that defines further attributes. Nested technical attributes can be expanded and collapsed in the user interface.
The technical attribute of a data object or data type may have the data object or data type itself as its range (direct recursion). Both direct and indirect recursions are supported.
Clicking "Add" creates the technical attribute.
Technical attributes can also be created by duplicating other technical attributes.
Edit technical attributes
Quick edit
A technical attribute is edited in the subpanel of the data object or data type, by clicking the edit icon (or by selecting "Edit Attribute" in the menu) next to the technical attribute.
The quick edit mode allows the modification of the most frequently used input fields.
The icons in the lower left corner of the edit view allow further settings to be made:
- Clicking
marks the element as favorite. - Clicking
marks the element as locked. - Clicking
marks the element as read-only.
Clicking "Save" applies the changes.
A technical attribute can be deleted in the subpanel of the data object or data type, by selecting "Delete Attribute" in the menu next to the technical attribute.
Detailed edit
A technical attribute is edited in the main panel of the technical attribute, by clicking the tab "Attribute" and the edit icon (or by selecting "Edit Attribute" in the menu).
The detailed edit mode allows the modification of all standard input fields. Additional, customer-specific fields can be added using annotations and will then also appear in the edit mode.
The icons in the lower left corner of the edit view allow further settings to be made:
- Clicking marks the element as favorite.
- Clicking marks the element as locked.
- Clicking marks the element as read-only.
Clicking "Save" applies the changes.
A technical attribute can be deleted in the main panel of the technical attribute, by selecting "Delete Attribute" in the menu.
Edit computation
The computation can be edited in the main panel of the technical attribute, by clicking the tab "Computation" and the edit icon (or by selecting "Edit Computation" in the menu).
Clicking "Save" applies the changes.
Order technical attributes
The sorting of the technical attributes is determined by their order (if present). This order can be assigned manually during editing. Alternatively, in the subpanel of the data object or data type, it is possible to arrange the technical attributes and assign their order automatically.
Selecting "Order Attributes..." in the menu opens a dialog, where the technical attributes can be rearranged with the mouse using "drag and drop".
Clicking "Save" applies the changes and reassigns the order automatically.
If required, it is possible to specify that automatic ordering should start at a certain number.