Home > Models

Introduction

An adaptation model is an enriched data model for Master Data. Globally, the goals are to guarantee the highest level of data consistency and to facilitate their management.

In concrete terms, the adaptation model is a document that conforms to the XML Schema standard (W3C recommendation). The main standard features that are supported are the following:

• A rich library of well-defined basic data types ( simple types : integer, boolean, decimal, date, time, ...);

• The ability to build more complex structures ( complex types );

• The ability to define simple lists of items ( aggregated lists );

• Validation constraints ( facets ): enumerations, uniqueness, minimum/maximum boundaries, ...

EBX.Platform also uses the extensibility features of XML Schema for other useful information, such as:

• Useful predefined types (locale, resource, html, ...);

• Definition of tables and foreign key constraints ;

• Mapping of Master Data to Java beans;

• Advanced validation constraints (extended facets ), like dynamic enumerations;

• Extensive presentation information : label, description, error messages, ...

Note: EBX.Platform supports a subset of the W3C recommendation, some features actually being useless for Master Data.

Model Editor

The adaptation model can be defined by using an XML Schema editor or the Data Model Assistant . The latter has the advantage of being integrated into EBX.manager and hiding the XML verbose language.

For non-technical users, it is recommended to skip this current Models part of the documentation, and to directly read Data Model Assistant tutorial .

References

For an introduction to XML Schema, we recommend the W3School web site.

W3C specification documents: XML Schema Part 0: Primer , Part 1: Structures , Part 2: Datatypes .

Links between adaptations and adaptation models

Any root adaptation instance is associated with a single adaptation model.

In order to create a root adaptation instance, you must have the "Provider" role. Being logged in EBX.Manager, you have to position to a branch content that is not the Reference (click on the link "View or edit content"). On the left side of the screen, click on the "create..." link. Several creation modes are then available.

Pre-requisite for XML Schemas

In order to be accepted by EBX.Platform, an XML Schema must include a global element declaration which has an attribute osd:access="--" .

Conventions

By convention, namespaces are always defined as below:

Schemas with reserved names

Several schemas have reserved names on EBX.Platform.

We consider as reserved every reference to another schema (attribute schemaLocation of a tag import, include or redefine) that ends with one of the following strings:

• common_1.0.xsd

• org_1.0.xsd

• coreModel_1.0.xsd

• session_1.0.xsd

Those files correspond to the schemas provided for the module ebx-root-1.0 , path /WEB-INF/ebx/schemas . The attribute schemaLocation can reference those files at this location or reference a copy, if the file name is the same. This is useful if you want to avoid the module dependency to ebx-root-1.0 .

For security reasons, EBX.Platform uses an internal definition of those schemas (to avoid any modification).

Home > Models