Types of Information Views

Analyzing Interactions › Defining Information Views › Types of Information Views

Types of Information Views

A view is a window through which a process can communicate information about entities. There are four types of information views:

Import
- An import view is view through which a process receive information when it begins execution, and that contains the minimum information that is needed to initiate a process.
- In the analysis model, imports arrive from another process in the model or from outside the scope of the project.
Export
- An export view is a view through which a process provide information when it ends its execution.
- The view show the values of data at the end of execution, or, in addition, it explain the successful or exceptional result of the execution.
- In the analysis model, exports either pass to another process in the model (manual or automated) or are used outside the scope of the project.
Entity Action
- An entity action view is a view through which a process inspect or manipulate stored information about entities during its execution.
Local
- A local view is a view in which a process temporarily save information during its execution.

For example, imagine the manual Take Order process that is depicted in the following illustration.

Types of Information Views

The large box around the clerk in the illustration represents the boundaries of the elementary Take Order process.

Refer to the following table for an explanation of the key activities in this process.

Key	Activity
1	Customers contact the store and provide the clerk with their Name, a list of products, and the Quantity of each product they wish to order.
2	The clerk walks to a filing cabinet containing records for all customers with which the store deals, and checks to make certain that the customer is on file. If the customer is not on file, the order cannot be taken until certain information about the customer is recorded in the file.
3	For each product requested, the clerk looks up its price in the product book and records it on the appropriate order item. The clerk also calculates the value of the order item by multiplying the product Price by the Quantity Ordered.
4	The clerk sums the Value of each order item to determine the Total Value of the order.
5	The clerk then contacts the customer and tells them the order Number and the Total Value of the order.
6	The clerk types up an order for all the items the customer wishes to purchase, and places it in a basket containing open orders. Assume that the order Number is a pre-printed unique number on the order form.

Customer is an external object. It is a real entity that both provide information to and receives information from Take Order. However, it is "external" to the stored information about the business.

Take Order deals with four entity types:

CUSTOMER
ORDER
PRODUCT
ORDER ITEM

The Take Order process has two views of customer:

Import view (A)
Entity action view (C)

Both are views of the same customer entity; they are simply used for different purposes.

The Take Order process relates to entities in three ways:

It receives information about a customer entity and several product entities from a customer.
- Since these views can be thought of as being "imported" by Take Order, they are named import views.
- The circled letter A in the illustration indicates the import views of Take Order.
It produces information about an order that is returned to the customer entity at its conclusion.
- Since this view can be thought of as being "exported" by Take Order, it is named an export view.
- The circled letter B in the illustration indicates the export view of the Take Order process.
It manipulates stored information about entities.
- With customer (circled letter C) and product (circled letter D), information is referenced.
- With order (circled letter E) and order item, information is created or newly stored.
- A view of stored information about an entity that manipulates a process is named an entity action view.

Another type of view, named a local view, is not used by Take Order. The local views are used infrequently during analysis because they usually represent temporary information that is used within a process.