Content Type Schema Nodes and Attributes

Define the content structure of your articles by specifying nodes and attributes. The nodes and attributes define the content fields within the article template for the content type.

An attribute is an individual item, such as an article title. A node is a heading for one or more attributes, such as author's name, user ID, and department. (In database terms, attributes are columns in a database table, whereas nodes are 1-M related tables.)

Nodes provide a convenient method of grouping together attributes that have some common characteristic. For example, a Contributors node might group together attribute fields to store information about various authors and editors who contributed to an article. Each node might contain attributes for the name, user ID, and department of a contributor. You can allow multiple copies of a node to store information about multiple contributors to articles.

Important: You can define a complex hierarchy of nodes and attributes to reflect virtually any type of data structure; however, Oracle recommends using simple data schema to make it easier for content providers to manage information.