Entity Attributes

To edit entity attributes, expand the Attributes section in the Tigerstripe Entity Artifact editor. The Attributes section is shown below:

To add an attribute:

1. Click Add. A blank attribute is created for the artifact, and the detailed view for the attribute displays.

To remove an attribute:

1. Select the attribute that you want to remove from the list of attributes and click Remove. A confirmation dialog appears to confirm the removal of the attribute.

To edit an attribute:

1. Select the attribute from the list of attributes. The detailed view for the attribute displays.

The detailed attribute display contains the following information:

• Attribute Name: the name of the attribute. This must be a valid identifier. The identifier cannot include special characters or spaces. The Attribute name must be unique within the context of the artifact.
• Attribute Type: the fully qualified name of the type for the attribute. To be valid, the Attribute type must be:
  • String: this denotes a String attribute. The attribute will be mapped appropriately in the XML and WSDL integration profile to ensure that there are no references to Java.
  • Java primitive types: this type of attribute will be mapped to the corresponding type in the XML and WSDL integration profile to ensure that there are no references to Java.
  • Valid Datatype Artifact types
  • Valid Entity Artifact types
• Multiplicity: the multiplicity allows you to denote the use of arrays for attributes of type String, of any primitive type, or Datatype Artifact type.
• Visibility: defines the visibility of the attribute. Visibility markers signify who can access the information contained within a class.
• Private visibility: Only classes in the same container can see and use the class. A minus sign text symbol (-) represents an attribute with Private visibility in the Class Diagram. For more information about Class Diagrams, refer to The Class Diagram Editor.
• Public visibility: Any class that can see the container can also see and use the class. A plus sign text symbol (+) represents an attribute with Public visibility in the Class Diagram. For more information about Class Diagrams, refer to The Class Diagram Editor.
• Protected visibility: Only classes in the same container or a descendent of the container can see and use the class. A pound sign text symbol (#) represents an attribute with Protected visibility in the Class Diagram. For more information about Class Diagrams, refer to The Class Diagram Editor.
• Package visibility: Only classes within the same package as the container can see and use the class. A tilda sign text symbol (~) represents an attribute with Package visibility in the Class Diagram. For more information about Class Diagrams, refer to The Class Diagram Editor.

The following image is an example of attribute visibility as displayed in the Diagram Editor:



• Modifiers: there are two possible modifiers that can be applied to an Attribute:
  • Optional: an attribute marked as optional means that the attribute may not be implemented, however it is still compliant with the service contract.
  • Readonly: an attribute marked as readonly denotes an attribute that can only be read by consumers of the Service Contract.
• Reference: when the attribute type is an Entity Artifact type, the attribute can be further specified to qualify the type of reference to the target entity type.
• Description: a textual description of the attribute. This field documents the purpose of the attribute. You can use HTML code in this field as it will be propagated to the web site where the project is to be published. For more details on Artifact documentation, refer to Tigerstripe Model Documentation.

Related Topics

 Entity Constants

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