OneData 10.7 | Managing Master Data with webMethods OneData | Implementing webMethods OneData | Managing an Object Structure | Column Definition Properties
 
Column Definition Properties
Basic object configuration includes defining the columns for that object. The Structure tab consists of several sub menus. The default link is the Show Structure menu. The Show Structure tab displays the columns in the object. Click the Edit icon for a column to view the column definition. To add a new column, click Add Column.
You can define a column in an object using the following properties:
Note:
The parameters are related to logical definition, physical structure, and presentation layer, and change based on data type.
Property
Description
Column
Column name. Used when creating the table in the database. The name cannot be prefixed with any special character, but can contain the special characters - _, $ and #.
Is Logical Column?
Whether the column defines a relationship or contains data.
*No: Default value
*Yes: Multi-select can be chosen on Insert.
*Linkages Attribute: Multi-select can be chosen via Linkages.
*Mapping Attribute: Not implemented.
*Temporal Relationship: Not implemented.
Caption
The name that displays in OneData interfaces.
XML Element Name
The name used in the XSD while generating the XML schema. If not provided, the XML name is the Column name.
Data Type
Data type of the column. The other column properties vary according to the data type. For information about supported data types in OneData, see Oracle Data Types Supported in OneData and SQL Server Data Types Supported in OneData .
Note:
If you are using SQL Server:
*Only one column in the object can be generated with a database sequence. When the column is a database sequence, OneData automatically selects the Required (Database)? property, because this type of column cannot be null.
*You can create optional database sequence or contiguous sequence columns only after you have defined the primary key.
*If you add audit columns from the database, set the data type of these columns as datetime in the database to use metadata audit functionality.
Length
The column length. The default length is 255. Applies to numeric, char, varchar, percentage, and sequence data types.
Precision
The column precision, The value of the precision is one more than the number of digits allowed after the decimal point. For numeric, percentage, and timestamp data types.
Note:
You cannot set precision for a Timestamp column in SQL Server. Timestamp columns in OneData use datetime data type. You can define the fractional second precision for datetime in Oracle, but you cannot define it in SQL Server. By default, the SQL Server sets the precision of a Timestamp column as 3.
Display Length
Column width in pixels. For long descriptions, make the column wider on display grids.
Disable Unicode Data Storage?
Indicates whether to support unicode characters in the column. Applicable only when you use SQL Server for varchar and char data types in OneData. By default, OneData supports unicode characters in SQL Server through the data types nvarchar and nchar in the database. If selected, OneData no longer supports unicode characters and the data types change to varchar and char respectively in the database.
Number of Decimal Digits
The number of digits allowed after the decimal point. For numeric data type.
Sequence Name
Name of the sequence. Select Existing Sequence? if the sequence already exists. Applies to all sequence data types.
Note:
Not available if using SQL Server.
Trigger Name
Name of the trigger. Select Existing Trigger? if the trigger already exists. For database/external sequences.
Note:
Not available if using SQL Server.
Use Specified Value?
Indicates whether to use a specified value. If selected, OneData uses the specified value; otherwise, it generates a sequence number. For optional, contiguous, or external sequences.
Note:
Not available if using SQL Server.
Begin Value
Enter a starting value for the sequence. For Database Sequence.
Note:
Not available if using SQL Server.
End Value
Enter an ending value for the sequence. For Database Sequence.
Note:
Not available if using SQL Server.
Required (Database)?
Indicates if the column is required in the database, in which case the column cannot be null.
Required (Application)?
Indicates whether the column is required. Required columns cannot be null. Enforced only in the application interface.
Default Value
Default value to populate in the column, limited by the data type. For example, you can specify sysdate to show the current date as the default value.
Note:
If you are using SQL Server, boolean columns treats 0 as false and a positive or negative number as true. You can also specify the following functions as default values for Date and Timestamp columns to retrieve the current date/time:
*sysdatetime()
*sysutcdatetime()
*sysdatetimeoffset()
*getdate()
*getutcdate()
*current_timestamp
Default Format
Default format for numeric, date or timestamp value. Depending on the data type, the list of applicable formats change.
Delete?
Whether the column is logically deleted. Logically deleted columns physically exist in the database (or base data objects in case of virtual entities), but are not visible to users. Database required columns cannot be logically deleted.
Enable Advanced Filtering?
Whether the column's advanced filtering options should be visible to the users when the advanced filtering is enabled.
Save in upper case?
Indicates whether to save the value in uppercase, for char and varchar data types.
Edit type
Whether the value in the column is editable. The options include:
*Not Editable
*Editable
*Editable on Insert
Note:Edit type is not applicable for sequence data types.
Show in Filter?
Whether the column displays in the filter in Data Manager:
*Hide in Filter: Column is not visible in filter.
*Show in Filter: Column is visible in the filter.
*Required in filter: You are required to enter a criteria for this column in the filter.
Show in Data Entry?
Whether the column should be displayed in Data Entry screen:
*Show in All
*Show in Add
*Show in Edit
*Hide in All
Note:
This is not applicable to objects in Default mode.
Owner
Select the column's owner. Click user name to set the value. You can also filter the user name(s) by entering the filter criteria and clicking the Search Value icon or by pressing Enter. To clear the user selection click .
Note:
The owner is responsible for maintaining the object structure and all related work. Change requests to this entity/attribute combination are automatically sent to the owner.
Group
Select the group to which the column has to be associated.
Description
The text that displays in the column caption on mouse-over (tool tips). To set multiple description columns when working with related objects, see .
Multi-select / Relation table
Select the table that manages many-to-many relationships between the object being created to other objects. Provides a means of single creation/edit point for these relationships.
Multi-select/ Relation column
Table column in the multi-select table designated as the primary key of the object being created.
Multi-select / Relation Display Option
Indicates whether to display the multi-select column as a list box or as a lookup.
Is Description Column?
Check to define the column as a description column.
Note:
For conceptual objects configured as a tree view, this must be selected for at least one column in each constituent object.
Hide in Display Screen?
Indicates whether to hide the column in the Display screen. The column is available in Insert or Edit screens.
Hide In Service Layer?
Indicates whether to hide the column in the service layer.
Column Qualifier
Additional qualifiers are as follows:
*Subscribing System: The source system in the Survivorship rules.
*Parse Data Indicator: Parses the data to link to a different document, URL, or email, for varchar columns only. For information on data links, see webMethods OneData User’s Guide.
*Linked to Data Dictionary: Used with metamap, updates the column on subsequent loads from the data dictionary. For information about metamap, see Working with webMethods OneData MDR.
*Supertype Indicator: Used for supertype and subtype structures.
*Status Indicator: Not used.
*Disable HTML evaluation: Applies only to char and varchar columns. If selected, HTML tags are not parsed for the column.
*Non-editable after end date: For temporal object setup. Restricts the change in values of the column (other than start date and end date columns) based on the end date.
*Transfer Date: For columns in a temporal object:
*Start Date: Determines the effective date of a record. The date can be a future date only.
*End Date: Determines the expiry date of a record. The date can be a future date only.
*Retroactive Start Date: Determines the effective date of a record. The date can be in past.
*Retroactive End Date: Determines the expiry date of a record. The date can be in past.
For data quality objects, you can use the following qualifiers:
*Cleansing Status Indicator: Applies to CDI Staging Objects.
*Survivorship Detail: Used for CDI Gold object, for char and varchar columns.
For information about data quality, see webMethods OneData Consolidation MDM Guide.
In hierarchy objects, the following qualifiers are available:
*Version Indicator: The version number of hierarchy to which the record belongs.
*Check-in/Check-out Indicator: Not used.
Additional Column Qualifiers
The following additional column qualifiers define the column behavior.
*Alternate Effective Date: For Archive Snapshot Objects to define the effective date.
*Set Display Type as List: For boolean columns. If selected, displays the boolean column as list box in the Insert and Edit screens. The Update Bulk screen also has the column options Ignore and NULL, in addition to Yes and No.
*Virtual Column Indicator: Available for all data types but applicable only for a column populated in View. Indicates that the column should be used only for viewing purpose. It displays as non-editable in Data Manager.
The following qualifiers apply to CDI Staging objects. For more information about consolidation, see webMethods OneData Consolidation MDM Guide.
*Consolidation Country Indicator: Derives the country code as input for cleansing.
*Data Quality Notification Recipient: For numeric columns.
*Merge Status Indicator: For numeric columns.
*Data Load Identifier. Enables users to obtain detailed consolidation statistics during a consolidation-enabled data load process by including a unique value for records that are updated or added to the data object in the same import. The unique identifier is in the format Date_DB_sequence_number.
Example: 2020-01-11_99
This unique identifier is available in SVC logs for all imports if the column qualifier Data Load Identifier is set. You can also use this identifier to filter for records added or modified in a single consolidation or non-consolidated import. Data Load Identifier is enabled for a column of type VARCHAR. The preferred character length is 255.
Show in Report?
Whether to show the column in reports. The default option is Hide. Other options are:
*Required in Report
*Show in Summary
*Show in Detail
*Show in Both
Column Width
Set the width for the column.
Validation Regular Expression
Data validation using Oracle Regular Expressions.
Transformation Regular Expression
Data transformation using Oracle Regular Expressions. Not yet functional.
Regular Expression Error Message
Enter the error message to be displayed on failure of regular expression validation.
Column Cost
Internal use to OneData.
Custodian System
A list of custodian systems, one of which can be associated with the column.
Inheritance Qualifier
Default is Inherit/Overwrite. If set to inherit, then the value of the column is copied over when record is copied.
Caption Alignment
Alignment of the column caption. Default is Right.
The default description column needs to be set if the object appears in a conceptual object context. Select the description columns from the immediate parent reference and its parents (parents display under the table list). Once you click Save from the pop-up, click Save the FK reference for the selection to be saved.
The selected description columns can be further configured in terms of caption, display length, show in filter, show in report, hide in service layer, similar to any other data object attribute. To set the additional properties, click on the Related Column Description pop-up again and click on Additional Properties.
Set the delimiter to display between the selected description columns in the System Properties menu as the Multiple description column Delimiter property.
For more information on System Properties, see Administering webMethods OneData.