Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Attribute_Name
Attribute_definition
SPECIFIC_INSTANCE
Attribute that provides a real-world meaning for a specific instance
(a value) of the data entity being described. The reason for
providing this information is so that the user can see that there is
some specific meaning associated with a particular value
instance that indicates something more than just the abstract
value. For example, the fact that 0
◦
latitude is the equator could
be defined. This means that the value of this attribute must
provide both an instance of the entity value and a definition of
its specific meaning.
INHERITS_FROM
Gives the name of a model or data field from which the current
entity description inherits attributes. This name must be the
value of the
name
attribute found in the referred entity
description.
Referencing this data entity description means that all the values of
its attributes having their
attribute_inheritance
set to
inheritable
apply to the current description.
COMPONENT
Name of a component, followed by the number of times it occurs
in the composite data entity. The number of times is specified by
a range.
KEYWORD
A significant word used for retrieving data entities
RELATION
This attribute is to be used to express a relationship between two
entity definitions when this relation cannot be expressed using a
precise standard relational attribute. In that case the relationship
is user-defined and expressed using free text.
DATA_TYPE
It specifies the type of the data entity values. This attribute shall
have one of the following values:
Enumerated
,
Te x t
,
Real
,
Integer
,
Composite
.
ENUMERATION_
VALUES
The set of permitted values of the
enumerated
data entity.
ENUMERATION_
MEANING
Enables to give a meaning to each value given by the attribute
enumeration_values.
ENUMERATION_
CONVENTION
Gives guidance on the correspondence between the
enumeration_values
and the numeric or textual values found
within the products.
RANGE
The minimum bound and the maximum bound of an
Integer
or
Real
data entity
TEXT_SIZE
The limitation on the size of the values of a Text data entity. This
attribute specifies the minimum and the maximum number of
characters the text may contain. If the minimum and the
maximum are equal, then this implies that the exact size of the
text is known.
CASE_SENSITIVITY
The value of this attribute specifies the case sensitivity for the
Identifiers used as values for the attributes of the current entity.
When used in a data entity, the value of the attribute overrides
the value specified at the dictionary level.
LANGUAGE
Main natural language that is valid for any value of type TEXT
given to the attributes of the current entity. When used in a data
entity, the value of the attribute overrides the value specified for
the dictionary entity.
CONSTANT_VALUE
The value of this attribute is the value given to a constant (entity
whose
class
attribute is set to
constant
).
