Entering the description of a User Entity or an entity extended by a Meta Entity Type

In this tab, you can organize the description fields of a User Entity or of an entity that is extended by a Meta Entity Type. You can also enter their values, which must conform to the components descriptions of the related Meta Entity.

About this task

There are several possibilities to enter the description fields. You can either add all the fields in a data description, or add the fields one by one. You can also enter the required fields only with a cardinality 1-1.

Procedure

  1. Open the description tab of a User Entity or a of an entity that is extended by a Meta Entity Type.
  2. If the structure table is empty, you must do one of the following actions to complete it:
    • Insert all the fields at once. Click Add all Fields to duplicate the structure that is defined in the Meta Entity. The root data aggregate is then displayed at the top level of a tree structure. The other data aggregates are displayed at lower levels.
    • Insert the fields one by one as follows:
      1. Click Add Field to display the root data aggregate.
      2. Click Add Field again. It opens a selection box in which you can select a component to be inserted in the User Entity.
      3. Click Add value. Then, click either Add all Fields to add all the fields that are defined in the Meta Entity for this data aggregate description, or click Add Field to select a field in the selection box. If mandatory fields are defined in your Meta Entity, click Add Required Fields to add them. If they are not added, an error is notified.
        Note: You can duplicate a data aggregate and the fields it contains by using Copy and Paste in the contextual menu.
  3. Enter values that fit the description of the Meta Entity to prevent errors. To do so, click the field and then the value column, and enter a value.
    • The lines that contain unique, sort, or identifier fields, or whose type is string, byte, or reference in the Meta Entity, include a button that is displayed when you click their value column cell. It is used to enter a series of values or to select an entity for a field that is identified as a reference.

      Two other buttons are displayed on the byte type lines. Click the first one to export the field to a file in your browser. Click the second one to import a file from the browser to the field.

      For the reference fields, the Add an undefined instance button is also displayed. You use it to set the reference to an undefined instance in the current network. If you click the button, a creation wizard opens. This wizard contains the following fields:
      • Entity type. You must select the type of entity whose instance you want to create. Only the entity types that are selected in the Meta Entity can be selected.
      • Package. The package is optional.
      • Meta Entity. You enter this field if you select User Entity in the Entity type field. You must then enter the name of its Meta Entity.
      • Name. Enter the name of the undefined instance that constitutes the target of the relation.
      Click OK. The undefined instance is displayed in the Value column. An error message or a warning is displayed on the line, according to whether the relation was declared constrained or not in the Composition tab of the Meta Entity.
    • For a data aggregate, the Value column automatically shows the mandatory fields and their values.
    • If you want to display a selection of fields in the User Entity, enter their names followed by a space in Field Path Filter. Select Show field name to see the labels and names of the fields that are displayed in the User Entity.
  4. A table is displayed in the Description detail section for each data aggregate description that contains multiple values. Simple fields only are displayed (integer, decimal, date, string, float, byte, time stamp, reference with a maximum cardinality of 1) in the data aggregate description. Each column corresponds to a description. If you click a column cell, the default value that is indicated in the Meta Entity is displayed. However, it can be modified by entering another value or by opening a dialog box for longer values. Click + to add other lines in the table or to delete them.

Results

Figure 1. Example of Description Detail table with multiple values for simple fields in a data aggregate description Table that is used to enter or modify the values in the simple fields of a data aggregate description with multiple values

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