Creating a Node Type

Best Practice

It's a best practice to create a new node type when you want to:

• Use different properties. For example if a Location node type has 10 properties and you only want the user to see 5 of the properties, create a new Location_dm node type with the 5 properties.
• Define specific node type relationships. For example, suppose the Entity node type contains Companies and Departments as Entity nodes. If you want to set up Company as a parent of Department, create a Company node type and Department node type. Then define the hierarchy set with Company node type as a parent of Department node type.
• Classify a unique set of nodes for a business purpose. For example, suppose the Entity node type contains departments and acquired departments. If you want to distinguish the differences, create a Department node type and Acquired Department node type. Then assign the nodes to the appropriate node type.

For more information, see Working with Node Types.

Videos

Your Goal	Watch This Video
Learn more about setting up node types.	Setting Up Node Types

1. From Node Types, click Create.

2. Select the application dimension.

   The dimension type is displayed below the selected dimension.

3. Select the node type class:
   • Normal (not available in Lookup dimensions)
   • Legacy GL
   • Lookup

   Note:

   For considerations in working with specialty node types such as Legacy GL and Lookup, see Working with Specialty Node Type Classes.

   An inspector for the node type is displayed.

4. Enter a name and (optionally) a description for the node type, and then click Create.

5. Optional: Select General, click Edit, and then define a Default Qualifier (and Alternate Qualifiers, if needed) to add a prefix or suffix to make the node type name unique. You must define a default qualifier in order to specify alternate qualifiers. See Working with Node Type Qualifiers.

   Note:

   Leading and trailing whitespace characters are trimmed from the default and alternate qualifiers.

6. Select Properties, and then click Edit. You can select which properties are required and change the order in which they are displayed. You can add or remove properties from the node type by clicking Manage and making the necessary changes.

7. Click Save.

If you need to set up a node type converter for the node type, see Working with Node Type Converters.