Working with Node Types
A node type is a collection of an application's nodes that share a common business purpose. Use node types to define nodes' properties and to define rules that convert a node type to another node type.
Each node is a member of a node type. For example, a node for an account typically will be a member of its application's node type for accounts.
The following list provides examples of how node types categorize nodes:
- The nodes for a Company dimension could be assigned to a node type for companies.
- The nodes of a hierarchy that organizes employees by office location could be assigned to node types for either employees or locations.
The following list describes node type features and considerations:
- Every node is assigned a node type.
- A node is uniquely identified by the combination of node name and node type.
- A node's type never varies. In other words, if a node is available in multiple viewpoints, its node type can't be changed in any of the viewpoints.
- A node type defines the properties available in any viewpoint that includes the node type in its data chain.
- Node types can have one of the following classes. You cannot change the class of a
node type after it has been created:
- Normal: For dimension types other than lookup dimensions. You can add or remove properties to a node type with a class of Normal.
- Lookup: Specialty node type used to store reference data from an external system. Contains generic reference properties that you cannot change. Can be used in any dimension type.
- Legacy GL: Specialty node type used to model chart of account values from a legacy general ledger system. Contains basic general ledger and mapping set properties that you cannot change. Can be used in any dimension type.
Note:
Nodes with the Lookup or Legacy GL class node type are not included in your total record count. See Working with Specialty Node Type Classes. - The node type data object doesn't have dependencies on other data chain objects.
- You can specify that a node type's nodes can be converted to another node type, see Working with Node Type Converters.
For more information, see:
- Working with Data Objects and the Data Chain
- Adding, Removing, and Configuring a Node Type's Properties
- Inspecting a Node Type
Example 20-2 Node Type Example
The Example 20-1 uses node types for Employees and Departments, as shown in the following diagram:

The example uses two node types because Departments and Employees nodes would be treated differently. For example, the Employees nodes could have properties for employees' addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses, while the Departments nodes could have a property for department managers.
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Learn about setting up node types. |