Attributes and Facts

An attribute represents a data element. It has a name and a data type. Client applications set values of these attributes using a fact. A Fact is a collection of related attributes that the client program uses to send to the server. A fact is always bound to a schema. Therefore, defining a set of attributes in the model lets the API and the server validate the attributes and their values that are set in the fact. 

<attributes>
    <attribute datatype="STRING" name="host"/>
    <attribute datatype="STRING" name="environment"/>
    <attribute datatype="STRING" name="node"/>
</attributes>

The table shows attributes and their equivalent API for the Attribute element:

API for the Attribute Element
Attributes API Usage
attribute Attribute RTASchema.getAttribute(String name)
name String getName()
description String getDescription()