Data modeling
The Data Modeler allows you to define the types of records that an application will use. It also allows you to define the kinds of relationships that the records may have.
All applications that run on IBM® Maximo® Real Estate and Facilities rely on four basic facilities:
- Records that contain the application's data.
- Queries or reports that allow people to work with sets of records.
- Workflows that automate the manipulation of records.
- Forms that allow people to work with individual records.
The Data Modeler works by allowing you to edit metadata that describes records. Metadata is simply data that describes data. The metadata for records is organized in four ways.
- Business objects
- A business object describes the properties of a kind of record. To create a record, you use the business object that corresponds to the type of record you want to create.
- Field definitions
- A field contains an individual piece of data such as 4. Records contain fields that contain the individual pieces of data. A field definition defines a type of field with a specified name. A business object contains a list of field definitions that determine which fields will be in records created from the business object.
- Modules
- Business objects are organized into collections called modules. Each module contains one or more business objects.
- Associations
- In the IBM Maximo Real Estate and Facilities environment, there are two different types of
associations. The first is at the business object (BO) level and is referred to as a BO level
association. This is an association between two business objects. It serves as an association
definition. The purpose of a BO level association is to define associations that applications may
create or use between records that are created from the associated business objects.
The second type of association is a record level association. It defines a connection from one record to another record. If a record level association exists, an application looking at the first record can then navigate to another record it is associated with.
Associations are defined using phrases that are called association strings. Generally two different strings are used and they are categorized as either forward or reverse associations. Which string is used for the forward or reverse association depends on the perspective of the object being referred to. From the perspective of the first object, it has a forward and reverse association to the second object. However, from the perspective of the second object, the associations are flipped. The first object's reverse association is the second object's forward association. The first object's forward association is the second object's reverse association.
If there is a BO level association between two business objects, a record level association with the same names may exist between two records created from the two business objects. The BO level association serves as a definition that allows the record level associations it defines to be created. Record level associations are usually instances of BO level associations. However, it is possible to have a record level association that is not defined by a BO level association.