Understanding The Data Model

The application uses meta-data to describe its data model, from plain description of its tables and fields to more complex hierarchies of maintenance objects.

The following points briefly outline key aspects of application’s data model as illustrated in this diagram:

Table and Field records describe all the tables maintained by the application.
Valid values for certain fields are defined using corresponding Lookup and Extendable Lookup records.
Characteristic types may be defined to support an extension of a maintenance object via its characteristics table.
Maintenance Objects define the physical structure of an entity. Business objects further refine maintenance objects to describe business entities. Refer to The Big Picture of Business Objects for more information.
Foreign Key References define ways for searching and navigating to the maintenance portal of an entity.

The following sections further discusses concepts and guidelines related to the data model.