Re: Designer Attribute vs Data Item

jbotteron_at_pps.k12.or.us (Jack Botteron) wrote:

>
>I am thinking about extending the repository to create an "implemented as"
>association between Attribute and Data Item, e.g. Attribute may be implemented
>as one or more Data Item. And, Data Item must be an implementation of one and
>only one attribute. My purpose is to gain the ability to have an official
>attribute name with the possibility of implemented aliase names.
>
>Are there any unintended consequences in the Designer models that would make
>this a poor idea? Does anyone have a better alternative?
>

Data items are a somewhat archaic holdover from older "bottom up" modeling approaches and dataflow diagramming.

There isn't any direct consequence of extending the repository as you describe. However, there continue to be issues with User Extenability and Loading/Unloading of element.

The repository already has "as implemented" information connecting Column Definitions back to Attribute Definitions. This can be seen in the DB Wizard, or in the RON. (In 1.3, you can only see this mapping under Attributes, not going the other way, which is a bug).

There can be multiple column implementing an attribute.

I'd recommend against extensability in this situation unless you have other needs.
-JJ

 Jeffrey Jacobs & Associates
 Oracle Designer/2000 Consulting & Training  951-2 Old Country Road, Suite 119, Belmont, CA 94002  Voice: 415-571-7092, FAX: 800-665-1379 CompuServe: 76702,456  Internet: 76702.456_at_compuserve.com     Received on Thu Jul 04 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST