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0505 Schema Attributes

Schemas typically have a hierarchical structure. Model 0505 provides for a structure of complex schema types that have their own internal structure. This structure is defined through one or more nested schema attributes each with their own type.

UML

TypeEmbeddedAttribute classification

The TypeEmbeddedAttribute classification is applied directly to the SchemaAttribute to provide its type information. For example, if a ComplexSchemaType has a simple string attribute this can be captured as a SchemaAttribute (giving the name of the attribute) with a TypeEmbeddedAttribute classification (whose dataType property indicates string).

TypeEmbeddedAttribute can represent any of the standard schema types. Where a schema type is described using multiple schema type objects,(such as MapSchemaType, SchemaOptionChoice and ExternalSchemaType) the schema relationships for that type begin with SchemaElement and then map to more detailed SchemaTypes. This is so they can be connected to a SchemaAttribute or a SchemaType.

NestedSchemaAttribute relationship

A SchemaAttribute can be nested within another SchemaAttribute using the NestedSchemaAttribute relationship. See 0534 Relational Schemas for an example of this between RelationalTables and RelationalColumns.

SchemaAttributeType relationship

The SchemaAttributeType relationship only should be used if the same schema type is used in multiple attributes within the same schema.

(To use a standard, pre-defined type for a schema attribute's type, set an ExternalSchemaType in the TypeEmbeddedAttribute and link to the standard, pre-defined type using the LinkedExternalSchemaType relationship.)

The combined properties of SchemaAttribute can be used to represent simple bounded types like sets and arrays:

  • Array: minCardinality = 0, maxCardinality = -1, allowsDuplicateValues = true, orderedValues = true
  • Set: minCardinality = 0, maxCardinality = -1, allowsDuplicateValues = false, orderedValues = false
  • Bag: minCardinality = 0, maxCardinality = -1, allowsDuplicateValues = true, orderedValues = false

DataItemSortOrder enum

DataItemSortOrder provides the valid values for the sortOrder property of SchemaAttribute. It indicates whether the rows/instances of the data stored in this schema appear in any particular order or not.

Enumeration Value Name Description
UNKNOWN 0 "" The sort order is not specified.
ASCENDING 1 "Ascending" The attribute instances are organized so that the smallest/lowest value is first and the rest of the instances follow in ascending order.
DESCENDING 2 "Descending" The attribute instances are organized so that the largest/highest value is first and the rest of the instances follow in descending order.
UNSORTED 3 "Unsorted" The instances of the schema attribute may appear in any order.

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