The Nature of Characteristics

Characteristics are non-functional properties of repository objects, which are treated as separate objects. A characteristic provides the criteria according to which objects are classified.

Types of Characteristics

In the case of single-valued characteristics, objects can be classified by no more than one value. Multi-valued characteristics allow classification with multiple values.

Examples of characteristics are:

Implicit and Explicit Classifications

You can use the characteristics to assign different values to repository objects. This process is called classification.

Objects can be classified either explicitly or implicitly:

• When you directly assign a value to an object, you classify that object explicitly.
• When you link two objects and one object inherits the classification of the other, you classify them implicitly. For more information, see Creating Object Links .

In the case of single-valued characteristics, it is necessary to decide which value is the effective one.

• If the values are entered manually, their order in the grid of the Characteristics Builder defines which one is effective. In that case, the topmost value overrules all other values.
• If the values are taken from a value table, a lexicographic order is assumed. For example, if we take a single-valued characteristic with possible values B and C, value B is the effective classification.
  Note

  The order can be affected by implementing the enhancement spot CLASSIFICATION_TOOL

• In the case of multi-valued characteristics, both implicit and explicit classifications are effective.

Characteristics are applied to a domain. The domain is defined by a set of repository object types. For more information, see Object Types and Object Type Groups .

The characteristic Transaction is Web-enabled is applicable only to the set of objects with the object type TRAN. Only transactions can be classified by this characteristic.

See also:

Basic Concepts

Maintaining Characteristics