You are viewing the documentation for Blueriq 17. Documentation for other versions is available in our documentation directory.
What is it?
An attribute is a property of an entity. Every attribute is of a specific data type. For example the entity Person can have attributes like: Name (type: string), Gender (type: Boolean) and Date of birth (type: Date).
An attribute can:
- have its values be limited to values specified in a value list (see Value list)
have multiple values (be multi-valued)
have a default value
- can have an associated set of unit tests
How does an attribute get a value
An attribute can get a value through logic, or it can be set by the user, a service, a function flow or a web service.
When the value is derived through logic, a business rule, decision table or data rule determines the value of the attribute. The value is usually dependent on values of other attributes. When an attribute gets a value in this way we say that the value is "system set". A system set value is only determined when the value is necessary, for example when it is shown on a page or used as input for a service.
The value can also be set explicitly by the user. We call this value "user set". This is the case when the value is filled in on a page. Other ways to make give an attribute a user set value is through the use of a service. This also covers other situations like the use of a web service or a function flow. When an attribute has a user set value, this value will be fixed until the value is cleared, or another value is explicitly set.
Attribute Types: boolean, string, number, date, datetime, percentage, currency, integer
The Data type field is used to set the data type of an attribute.
| Data type | Description |
|---|---|
| Boolean | Contains a boolean TRUE or FALSE value, or UNKNOWN |
| String | Contains a text string of max. 500 characters |
| Number | Contains a numerical value |
| Date | Contains a date. The format depends on the locale of the application server |
| Datetime | Contains a date and time. The format depends on the locale of the application server |
| Percentage | Contains a numerical value, representing a percentage. Note that that a value of a percentage is treated just like any number. the percentage is mainly used for presentation, in mathematical operations the percentage acts the same as a Number. If you want a percentage attribute to act as a percentage in a multiplication (i.e., 25 % * 80 = 20) , you have to divide the result by 100. |
| Currency | Contains a numerical value, representing a currency |
| Integer | Contains an integer value |
For the numerical types (Number/Percentage/Currency/Integer), there are rules which mathematical operations can be applied between attributes of the same or different type. See Expression function reference.
Overview
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