Every record attribute has a data type. The data type specifies what type of data will be stored in that field and how the attribute’s value should be interpreted. An attribute’s data type is established when EnterWorks is configured. Some data types have configurable characteristics. For instance, if an attribute is declared as VARCHAR data type, the maximum length of the attribute’s character string must also be specified.

When the editor displays an attribute value for the user to edit, the format it uses is defined by the attribute’s data type, as is the format of the value the user will enter. For instance, an attribute of the type DATE might display a calendar for the user to select from as well as a place for the user to type the date in directly, whereas an attribute of the type CURRENCY may display a value in the form of “$xxx.xx”.

When a user edits a record and saves it, the editor will assign validation errors to any attribute values that do not match the attribute’s data type, such as characters entered into decimal fields.

Records may have thousands of attributes, which can make them unwieldy to view or edit. For display purposes, attributes are grouped, typically according to their function. For instance, all the metric measurement attributes might be placed into a group called “Metric Measurements” and the imperial measurements in a group called “Imperial Measurements”.

These attribute groups are then placed into larger groups called attribute tabs. The groups Metric Measurements and Imperial Measurements might be placed into a tab named “Specifications”.

When a record is opened in an editor, the attribute tabs are displayed. The tabs can be expanded to show the attribute groups. The attribute groups can be expanded to show the actual attributes themselves.

Each repository has its own set of attribute tabs and groups. Attribute tabs and groups are defined and maintained by the system administrator.

When a record is opened in an editor, attributes selected as summary attributes are displayed in the record header. Any attributes may be selected to be summary attributes, even attributes in records that are linked to the repository.

A record attribute may be configured to have a default value. When a new record is added, any attribute that has a specified default value will be set to the default value. Depending on the way the attribute was defined, the user or the system may be allowed to change the value.

Each record in a repository has a unique record ID attribute called a key. The record’s unique, identifying key is called its primary key. Primary keys are often auto-generated.

If the primary key is an auto-sequenced attribute field and EnterWorks has been configured to allow the user to set its value, if the user enters a value, it will be saved. If the user has not, EnterWorks will generate the field value based upon the next number in the sequence and any configured rules. Once the new record is saved, the value of the auto-sequenced field is typically configured so that it cannot be changed. EnterWorks can be configured to generate unique identifiers across a set of repositories, so no duplicate identifiers will be generated or saved.

If the record’s primary key is not auto-generated and the user does not enter a primary key, the field will be left empty and an error for the record will be generated. If the user enters a value in a primary key attribute that has been used elsewhere in the repository, a duplicate identifier error for the record will be generated. EnterWorks may also be configured to ensure that within a set of repositories, no duplicate identifiers are generated or saved.

NOTE: A record’s primary key may be edited using the Inline Editor in a Repository View if the user has sufficient permissions. This should not be considered common practice and great care must be taken when modifying a primary key, as the key can be referenced in numerous database tables and reports. Changing a primary key that is referenced by other repository records will effectively break the link from those records, unless the same change is made to those records as well.

A record’s primary key is not to be confused with its sequence number. A sequence number only describes the order in which records are displayed in a Repository View, it is not used to identify the record.

Each record in a repository needs a unique ID to identify it. These IDs are tracked via a sequence object (also called a sequenceor sequence definition), which keeps track of the IDs that have been used in that repository.

A sequence can be shared by multiple repositories, which would guarantee that each record has a unique id across all the repositories using that sequence. A use for this would be if products were being entered in multiple repositories but each product needed a unique product ID. Although a sequence definition can be shared by multiple repositories, it is recommended as best practice to create a separate sequence definition for each repository.

The default sequence object is commonly used if the user doesn’t care what the sequence numbers are as long as they uniquely identify each record.

Code Sets

A code set is a special data type that consists of a list of predefined value pairs, “Code” and “Description”, that contain all possible values for the attribute. When the attribute is displayed for editing by the user, the user will be presented with the list of paired values to choose from. If the Code and Description values are the same, only the Code will be displayed. If the Code and Description are different, they will be displayed as “<Code Value> -- <Description Value>”.

Select a Value for an Attribute with Datatype of Code Set

A code set is a special data type that consists of a list of predefined value pairs, “Code” and “Description”, that contain all possible values for the attribute. When the attribute is displayed for editing by the user, the user will be presented with the list of paired values to choose from. If the Code and Description values are the same, only the Code will be displayed. If the Code and Description are different, they will be displayed as “<Code Value> -- <Description Value>”.

An association group is a set of attributes that coordinate with each other, in that each attribute field consists of a list of values, where the first value in the list of one attribute relates to the first value in the list of the other attributes in the association group.

For example, the association group could have the attributes “Country”, “Tariff”, “Currency”, and “Measurement”. The attribute values for a record might be:

Country = Argentina | Germany | India | United States

Tariff = 0.02 | 0.04 | 0.06 | 0.08

Currency = peso | euro | rupee | dollar

Measurement = metric | metric | metric | USCS

Where for the Country “Argentina”, the Tariff is “0.02”, Currency is “peso”, and the Measurement system is “metric”.

Another way to visualize a record’s associated attributes would to envision the record having a sub-table, such as shown below.

Association groups can be used by more than one profile.

Editor controls add additional specifications on how an attribute value is displayed and the format the user will use to enter that value. These specifications are not determined by the attribute’s data type, but by how the attribute value will be used. For instance, although an attribute that holds a phone number might have the data type of VARCHAR and a length of 10, an editor control rule for that attribute may denote that the editor will display the phone number as “(xxx) xxx-xxxx” and that as the user types in digits, they will be composed in the format.

A calculated field is an attribute whose value is determined by the values of other attributes or system variables. For instance, the value of the attribute “Area of Rug” might be calculated by multiplying the value of the attribute “Rug Length” by the value of the attribute “Rug Width”.

The values of calculated fields are not determined until the record is saved, both in the case of a new record being added and when an existing record is being edited. If a user edits a value in a calculated field, depending upon system configuration it may be overwritten with the system-derived value when the record is saved.