Attributes

An attribute is the basic unit of a record schema. Assignments on attributes (also known as key-value pairs) describe records in the Oracle Endeca Server.

For a data record, an assignment on an attribute provides information about that record. For example, for a list of book records, an assignment on the Author attribute contains the author of the book record.

Each attribute is identified by a unique name.

Each attribute on a data record is itself represented by a record that describes this attribute. Following the book records example, there is a record that describes the Author attribute. A collection of these records that describe attributes forms a schema for your records. This collection is known as system records. Each attribute in a record in the schema controls an aspect of the attribute on a data record. For example, an attribute on any data record can be searchable or not. This fact is described by an attribute in the schema record.