Temporal Objects
The configuration of a temporal object determines how it behaves. For example, a temporal object can have different effective dates and expiration dates:
An
Effective Start Date that occurs in the past, but has an
Expiration date in the future only.
An
Effective Start Date that occurs only in the future.
Rules for temporal objects are determined using effective start and end dates. In a temporal conceptual object, the effective dates of the child record are constrained by the effective dates of the parent record and cannot fall outside of the effective dates of the parent record. This rule is verified when a record is created or deleted and when the effective dates are modified in a child or parent record. But, if required this rule (parent and child temporal validation) can be skipped by setting the Additional Qualifier at the child object level as Individual Temporal Level (Temporal) in Country > State the qualifier is set in State.
The records in a temporal object can be classified into:
Master temporal records: For example, Brand or Product. These are true effective dates for the master record and do not give a historic perspective.
Historic temporal records: For example Brand/Brand Name history. Brand Name history is a name change log with effective dates.
Configuration of both these types is same, except with historic temporal records, the primary key includes the Effective Start Date or the Effective End Date.
You can ensure that there are no overlapping dates for the same record by having a two part primary key in which one part is start or end date. For example, if a product code has two names, one effective from 1/1/2004 to 12/31/2004 and the other name effective 1/1/2005 to 12/31/2005. You cannot change the dates for the second name effective 6/1/2004 to 12/31/2005 because the second range overlaps the first.