CentraSite Utilities Parent - Attributes in the Registry

Attributes in the registry

This document provides details about storage of attributes in the registry.

Attributes are a shy approach to a metamodel in CentraSite. Basically, they are modelled as standard slots, relations, and classifications. In the case of slots, that's actually all: The slots name acts as an identification of the attribute.

Unfortunately, that's not the case for relations (associations) and classifications: In order to create or identify a relation, or a classification attribute, you must take additional steps. Otherwise, your associations and classifications won't show up in the UI. (And likely won't be detected by CentraSite, if they should play a greater role in the future.)

Relations

When describing relations, we have to consider two parts: The relations description in the object type concept and the relations storage within the actual registry object instance, which is basically a reference to the former.

Relation in the object type

As you already know, any object type is internally represented by a concept. Being, in particular, a registry object itself, the concept may have associations and classifications itself.

In particular, there is an association for any relation.

The associations type is "AssociatedWith".
The associations name is the attributes name.
Additionally, the association is classified with the association type concept, which is the relations association type.
The associations target is the concept of the relations target type.

Relation in the instance

Within the instance, the relation is basically an association with an additional slot: The slots value is the key of the relations association in the object type. The slots name is {http://namespaces.CentraSite.com/Schema}attributeKey.

Managing relations

Here's how to manage relations:

To create, or remove relationship attributes from the object type, use the TypeManager API.
To create a new relationship attribute in the object types instance, use createRelationship(RegistryFacade,RegistryObject,String,RegistryObject) in the class Attributes.
To read a relationship attribute from an object types instance, use findRelationship(RegistryFacade,RegistryObject,String) in the class Attributes. This will return a collection of associations.
To update a relationship attribute, read it and modify the resulting associations.
To delete a relationship attribute, read and then delete the associations from the owning registry object.

Classification attributes

As in the case of relationships, we must distinguish between the storage within the object type concept and the actual instance.

Classification attribute in the object type

We recall again, that any object type is internally represented by a concept. Being, in particular, a registry object, the concept may have associations and classifications itself.

In particular, there is an association for any classification attribute.

The associations type is "ClassifiedBy".
The associations name is the attributes name.
The associations target is the concept of the relations classification scheme.

Classification attribute in the instance

Within the instance, the classification attribute is basically a standard classification, but with an additional slot: The slots value is the key of the corresponding association in the object type. The slots name is {http://namespaces.CentraSite.com/Schema}attributeKey.

Managing classification attributes

Here's how to manage classification attributes:

To create, or remove classification attributes from the object type, use the TypeManager API.
To create a new classification attribute in the object types instance, use createClassificationAttribute(RegistryFacade,RegistryObject,String,Concept) in the class Attributes.
To read a classification attribute from an object types instance, use findClassificationAttribute(RegistryFacade,RegistryObject,String) in the class Attributes.
To update a classification attribute, read it and modify the resulting classifications.
To delete a relationship attribute, read it and then delete the classifications from the owning registry object.

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