Connector Guides › Connector Xpress Guide › Screens and Dialogs › Direct Association Dialog

Direct Association Dialog

The Direct Association dialog lets you specify a direct association between any two classes of objects. Associations of this type are always directional of the form from Class1 to Class2.

You can also use this dialog to establish reverse association that maps an association between the same classes, but in the opposite direction.

Most bi-directional associations have a physical attribute on one class and a virtual attribute on the other class. We recommend that you define the physical association attribute first.

This dialog contains the following fields:

• Physical Attribute

  Specifies the physical attribute through which an association is made. The attribute is physical in the sense that it exists on the native system.

• Virtual Attribute

  Specifies an attribute which does not exist on the native system, but rather is virtual and maintained by the Java CS (that is, computed by the Java CS and not persisted on the native system) which forms the part of an association.

  Typically in JNDI, memberof is such attribute, as the native systems only store associations in one direction from group to account. A virtual attribute allows you to create an association from account to group instead.

• By Attribute

  Specifies the association attribute of the target class that the association attribute of the source class references.

• Value Template

  Specifies a formatted attribute value to match against. For example, in the cases where the target class's association attribute is more complex than the value held in the source class's association attribute.

  By default, non-DN association attributes are assumed to hold values that exactly correspond to the values of the name or alternative key of the "to" class. If the association attribute has some internal structure, then you can use the template field to help you deal with the structure when creating an association.

  The template value can contain the string ${name} or ${dn}. When creating an association, ${name} is replaced with the simple name of the related object, and ${dn} is replaced by its full DN.

• By Filter

  Specifies a particular LDAP filter to be used to match the target class's attribute. This is specified as an LDAP search filter, where a string of the form ${attributeName}replaces the value of the corresponding attribute of the from class at run time.

• Use as a Base Association

  Allows you to select an existing association and base the results of the new association on the existing association, but altering those results somehow, for example, adding association results that appear due to nesting.

• Objects Must Exist

  Specifies that the Connector Server checks that the referenced object exists before it adds it to an association. This check box also affects the reverse association if any. That is, this check box applies to both the source and target class, in either direction.

• Use DNs in Attributes

  Specifies the values that are persisted on the native system. If selected, flags that the full native DN values are stored. For example, cn=myaccount, ou=myorgunit, rather than just the naming attribute value from a DN, such as myaccount.

• Association is Nested

  Specifies whether associations between group classes are nested. For example, a single association definition may satisfy "groups of groups of groups" relationships.

• Include A Reverse Association

  Displays the Reverse Association part of the dialog.