Creating Simple Data Elements

Simple data elements are simple data types. A simple data element cannot contain any child elements.

To create simple data elements:

From the Studio menu, select Show Design Perspective.
Click the Dictionary tab.
In the Dictionary view, right-click and select Add Simple Schema Element.

The Create Data Schema Element dialog box appears.
In the Entity field, select the schema entity into which the new element will be saved.
In the Type field, do one of the following:
- Click Select to select an existing simple data element as the base type for the new element. If you do not see any existing data elements in the resulting window, deselect the Filter Project Dependencies check box. The new element becomes a subtype of the element you select here, and inherits the base type attributes. See "Leveraging Existing Data Information" and "Deriving from Base Type Elements" for more information about extending existing elements.
- Click Clear to remove the association of the base type element and to use a primitive type as the base type.
In the Primitive Type field, select a data type for the new element.

If the new element inherits from a base type element, the primitive type of the base type element displays in this field. Base type and subtype elements must both be defined by the same primitive type.
In the Name field, enter the name for the data element.

Design Studio uses the value defined in the Type field (if specified) as the default value in the Name field. Oracle recommends that you use the default value.
In the Display Name field, enter the name for the new element that appears in Design Studio editors and in the run-time environments.

Design Studio supports multiple languages for this field. The field adjacent to Display Name displays your list of languages. You can define a display name for any language you select from the list.

If your preferences are set up to work in one language only, the system displays only the [default] option. See "Defining Language Preferences" for more information.
In the Multiplicity field, define the minimum and maximum number of times the data element can appear in an instance document.

See "Details Tab or Attributes Tab" for more information about defining values for this field.
(Optional) Select Abstract to indicate that the data element is intended to be inherited and not referenced.

If abstract data elements are referenced, a warning marker will appear in the Problems view.
In the Length field, specify the minimum and maximum lengths for primitive types that support length restriction.

See "Details Tab or Attributes Tab" for more information about defining values for this field.
In the Default field, assign a default value for simple data elements.

The default value must be of the same type as the data element. For example, if the data element is a string, the default value must be a string.
Click OK.

The new simple element appears in the Dictionary view.