Domains are used to manage referential integrity for multiple sets of nodes from different sources within the same Data Relationship Management application. A domain is a registered list of nodes of a common type which enables consistent management of these nodes in different versions within the same application. A domain provides a simple method for:
Qualifying node names to ensure uniqueness
Sharing identifying properties across versions
Restricting certain types of changes such as renaming, promoting, demoting, and deleting nodes
Assigning validations to ensure consistency of business rules regardless of version
Domain nodes are global nodes in a version with membership to a domain. Domain nodes cannot be renamed and cannot be removed from a domain after being assigned as a member. A domain node must have a unique name, regardless of domain assignment. The name of a domain node may represent the natural identifier of the node or may be qualified with a prefix or suffix to ensure referential integrity when used with nodes of different domains in the same version. The domain node description and inactive status/date are shared by a domain node in any version where it exists.