High-level object relationships

To understand specific data structures, you should understand the high-level relationships between AR System objects. (For descriptions of these objects, see Workflow-objects.) As shown in the following image, the foundation of all client programs built on AR System is the schema. Although the AR System API uses schemas, the AR System clients see schemas as forms. A client must be able to access at least one schema.

Related topics

Developing-an-API-program

Data-structures


High-level object relationships

221_DataStructures3_HighLevelObjRel.png 

For information about the notation used to represent data relationships, see Data-relationships.

Your client program can also have menus and containers. Servers or schemas (forms) can own containers, which the server uses to create guides and applications. Applications can contain one to many schemas. Guides can be shared and can contain one to many active links.

AR System has the following types of schemas:

  • Data - Is the most common schema. Data schemas contain data in the AR System database.
  • Display-only - Show data from one data schema. Display-only schemas do not contain data.
  • Join - Show data from two or more data schemas with a common matching field. Join schemas do not contain data. If you modify values in a join schema, you are changing the data in its parent data schemas.
  • Vendor - Acquires data from a plug-in service and acts like data schemas.
  • View - Shows data from external database tables and acts like data schemas.

Each schema must have at least one view (the default view) but can have many.

Each data schema must have at least one field but is likely to have many fields. By default, every data schema is created with nine core fields that cannot be deleted. For more information about core fields, see Core-fields.

AR System has the following types of fields:

  • Data - A schema must have at least one data field.
  • Nondata - Trim, control, panel, and table. Nondata fields are optional.

Most data schemas have many entries, but a schema can exist with no entry. Although this term is still used in the AR System API, the term requests is used in AR System clients.

Any number of filters, escalations, or active links can be associated with a schema or list of schemas, but these objects are not required. See Schemas-and-structures.

Active links can be associated with either data or control fields. A data or control field can have any number of active links associated with it.

An active link must be associated with a particular schema. 

A particular execute-on condition of an active link can be associated with only one field. Different execute-on conditions in the same active link can reference different fields.

Menus can be associated only with data fields. A menu can be associated with any number of data fields, both in a schema and across multiple schemas. However, a data field can have only one menu associated with it.

 

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