Relationship and Multivalue Attributes versus Regular Attributes
This section compares the capabilities of relationship attribute and multivalued attributes with regular repository attributes.
In most cases, the behavior of all the attributes is the same, but there are some subtle differences. When a relationship is defined, one or more attributes can be defined for the relationship. Attribute definitions are similar to repository attributes.
Multivalue attributes have more than one value for the same record.
The following table shows a comparison of relationship and multivalue attributes compared with regular repository attributes.
| Description | Additional Information | Relationship Attribute | Multivalue Attribute | Regular Attribute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminology | Metadata terminology |
|
|
|
| Record terminology | Relationship record | Record | Record | |
| Name, description, help, data type, position, display name, and column name can be specified. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Attribute can be designated as "partition key". | No | No | Yes | |
| Attributes can be multivalue. | No | Yes | ||
| Attributes can be grouped by specifying group name. | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Data type change is allowed. | No | No | No | |
| Attribute names, display name, and column name uniqueness. | Yes
Uniqueness is only required within the relationship definition. |
Yes
Uniqueness is only required within the repository attributes definition. |
Yes
Uniqueness is only required within the repository attributes definition. |
|
| Attributes add, modify, and delete supported. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Attribute can be marked as "include in record list". | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Attribute can be marked as "searchable". | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Attribute can be marked as "include in quick view". | No (Always included by default) | Yes | Yes | |
| User-specified table name in which attributes are stored. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Default table name | RCT_XXX
(XXX = ID of internal relationship repository) |
MVT_XXX
(XXX = ID of internal multivalue repository) |
MCT_XXX
(XXX = ID of repository) |
|
| Attribute definitions exported or imported with other metadata. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Input map support for importing of data. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Exporting of data | Yes (With limitations: Explicit mapping is not required. Attributes are exported in a relationship-specific file.) | Yes (With limitations: multivalues are separated by a delimiter in a file. Data truncation may occur.
When a multivalue attribute is mapped to an Integer, Date, Decimal, or Amount data type, only the first value of the attribute is exported.) |
Yes | |
| Repository copy - Attributes are copied. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Record copy - Attributes are copied. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Records compare | Yes | Yes (Ordered before compare) | Yes | |
| Subset Search by "List" | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Subset Search by "Expression" | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Subset Search by "Search" | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Rulebase support | assign | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| connect | Yes | NA | NA | |
| check | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| softlink | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| select (drop-down list) | Yes | Yes (with limitation: no value attribute not supported) | Yes | |
| access | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| SQL expressions | No | Yes (with limitation: only supported in where clause. Supported operators: in, eq, like) | Yes | |
| changed | No | Yes | Yes | |
| defined, undefined | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| eq, neq | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| gt, lt, geq, leq | Yes | No | Yes | |
| Workflow activities | RecordCompare | No | Yes | Yes |
| GetRecord | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| EvaluateRulebase | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| SaveRecord | Yes (with limitation: Not supported in INPUT mode) | Yes | Yes | |
| MergeRecord | No | Yes | Yes | |
| MatchRecord | No | No | Yes | |
| CreateWorkitem | No | No | Yes | |
| VerifyRecordStatus | No | No | Yes | |
| ImportCatalogRecords | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| UpdateRecordState (conflict/merge support) | No | Yes | Yes | |
| CreateOutputFile | Yes (Attributes can be mapped to output files via Relationship Attributes Output Map and are also exported in a relationship-specific file.) | Yes (With
limitations: Multivalues are separated by a delimiter in a file. Data truncation may occur.) |
Yes | |
| ConvertRecordToOutput | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Versioning | New relationship record on change. | Versioned as record version. | Versioned as record version. | |
| Mass Update support | No | No | Yes | |
| One click sort on record lists. | Yes | No | Yes |