18 Working with Data Objects and the Data Chain

The basic organizational structure in Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud is an application, and each application contains dimensions (such as Product and Entity). Each dimension contains a series of related data objects called data chains, which consist of node types, hierarchy sets, node sets, and viewpoints. These data objects are the building blocks of the Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud solutions you will create.

The way in which a viewpoint and its related data objects are configured determine the nodes available in the viewpoint. In addition, the data chain defines characteristics of the viewpoint such as those in the following list:

• Whether the nodes are a list or a hierarchy
• Rules defining relationships between the hierarchy's nodes
• The nodes' properties
• The actions users can perform

The following table summarizes the data objects. For more information about the data objects, see Understanding Data Chains.

Data Object	Description
Node type	Contains all nodes of a given category. For example, account nodes would be contained by an Accounts node type. See Working with Node Types
Hierarchy set	Defines nodes' parent-child relationships. See Working with Hierarchy Sets.
Node set	Defines the group of nodes available in a viewpoint. See Working with Node Sets.
Viewpoint	Presents the node set to users, and defines actions users can perform and properties users can edit. See Understanding Viewpoints.

Node types, hierarchy sets, and node sets are reusable objects. For example, if you have a hierarchy that is used in different viewpoints, you typically would use its hierarchy set object in all of those viewpoints.

For more information, see:

• Understanding Data Chains
• Understanding the Lifecycle of Data Objects and the Data Chain

Example 18-1 Data Chain for a Hierarchy Example

Suppose that you are working with hierarchies that list employees by departments. The viewpoint contains hierarchies that represent the employees of the Analytics and Finance departments, as shown in the following example:

The application also contains another hierarchy for the Marketing department, but that hierarchy is not included in the viewpoint. The following table describes the data chain upon which this viewpoint is built:

Data Object	Description
Node types	The nodes belong to the following node types: The employee nodes are contained by the Employees node type. The department nodes are contained by the Departments node type.
Hierarchy set	Defines the parent-child relationships as follows: Departments nodes can have child Employees nodes. Employees nodes cannot have child nodes. The hierarchy set also defines the child Employees nodes of the Departments nodes.
Node set	Includes the Analytics and Finance departments' hierarchies. The hierarchy set's Marketing hierarchy is excluded.
Viewpoint	Displays the nodes specified in the node set.

The following diagram shows the data chain used to define the viewpoint:

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