What Are Attribute Packages?

An attribute package is pre-defined set of attributes for a target DBMS. One attribute package can hold multiple attributes.

Attribute packages are reusable user-defined attributes that promote consistent attribute definitions. You construct attribute packages as you would entities, specifying a name, attributes with datatype properties, default values and validation rules. Afterwards, you can reuse these attribute packages in your data model by applying them to entities.

By defining an attribute package, you also gain the power of propagating changes to the underlying attribute package to all entities that reference it. For example: when you add an attribute to an attribute package, the attribute will automatically be added to the entities referencing the attribute package.

The available packages for the active target DBMS are listed in the Object Browser under Attribute packages.

Each target DBMS has its own installed attribute packages. The available attribute packages depend on the selected target DBMS. You can use the same attribute package in multiple models.

The packages are stored in XML files. Each file contains one package with one or more attributes. The files containing the packages are saved in the Packages directory. You can define this directory in the Options dialog. The package directory contains subdirectories for each target DBMS. The subdirectory names are the same as the DBID (database id) name for that target DBMS.


See also: What are domains?