ice.NET Key Concepts: Attribute Types

Attribute Types define the basic characteristics of attributes:

• The value type
• The unit of measurement (optional)
• The attribute range
• Enumeration values

Attribute Types share a set of common aspects:

• Attribute Types (like all schema elements) are organized in packages.
• Every Attribute Type is identified by its object type ID. The ID does not change and exists until the Attribute Type is deleted. The ID is unique within the scope of the current system context (i.e. normally within a database or an XML document).
• Furthermore, every Attribute Type is identified by its Attribute Type name. This name has to be choosen by the developer who creates the Attribute Type. The Attribute Type name has to be unique. The character set of Attribute Type names is limited to the capability of the XML QName specification in order to support programming concepts like XML Schema or code generators.
• Every Attribute Type has a display name and a description. The display name is used for UI and other visualization purposes and provides the possibility to assign a user-friendly name to the Attribute Type. The display name does not have to be unique (though it is recommended to ensure uniqueness within a reasonable scope). It can contain any unicode characters (e.g. umlauts or scandinavian special characters).

Attributes are of one of the following value type:

• String
• Enumeration
• Bool
• Integer
• Real
• DateTime