ice.NET Key Concepts: Object Types

Object types describe the characteristics of objects. Object types share a set of common aspects:

• Object types (like all schema elements) are organized in packages.
• Every object type is identified by its object type ID. The ID does not change and exists until the object 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 object type is identified by its object type name. This name has to be choosen by the developer who creates the object type and should reflect the semantics of the objects that conform to this type. The object type name (unlike the object name) has to be unique. The character set of object 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 object 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 object 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).
• Object types can have supertypes. Inheritance is not limited to one supertype. All characteristics (attribute definitions, connectivity, business logic) is recursively inherited from supertypes to subtypes.