Glossary

attribute name

Attribute name specifies the name of the attribute used throughout the XML file to reference another XML element in the XML file.

container

Container—A container is a user defined grouping of repository instances that you can retrieve at any time for review or processing. Containers are similar to entities in that they are metadata objects, such as a physical table, business rule, or table column found in your business data. The instances that you group within a container type can belong to any object type. Container types are unique, however, in that they do not require explicit relationship types to be defined to model the grouping of other object types. There are several types of container types such as: Category, Object Group, Document, Designer 2000 Application, Cayenne Container, Erwin Container, Data Stewards, and so on. New container types can be created using the Extend Tool.

control file

The control file contains the rules for locating the data in the input XML files and mapping the data to work tables in the repository database on the mainframe.

entity

entity—An entity is one metadata object, such as a physical table, business rule, or table column found in your business data. Each entity in the repository corresponds to a physical table in the repository. An entity set is used to group like objects together. For example, the Table Objects entity set contains both logical tables and SQL Views. Relationships can point to entity sets as well as the individual objects themselves]

heap space

Heap space refers to a common pool of memory that is available in a program. Heap management is either performed by the application itself by allocating and deallocating memory as required, or by the operating system or other system program.

instance

instance—An instance is one occurrence of metadata in the repository for a particular object type. For example, an instance of the object type TABLE would be CUSTOMER_TABLE

link attribute

A link attribute describes an attribute that is used in the XML document to reference another XML element in the document. In XML terminology, these attributes are usually known as IDREF attribute types.

mapping

Mapping is a mechanism for changing values in the input XML file before it is uploaded to the repository. Mapping enables the conversion of input XML file data into <prodname> values for Entities or Relationships in preparation for uploading the file to the repository.

metadata

In the repository, metadata is data about data, processes and any other information assets, and their interrelationships. This includes definitions about data elements, records, tables, sub-schema, schema, definitions in a data dictionary or SQL catalog as well as documentation on operations, files, programs, processes, data warehouse extraction mappings, transformation rules, and load mappings, and any other information asset an organization would like to track. On a business level, stewardship, business rules, categorization, and business terms and definitions are considered metadata.

metamodel

The metamodel defines the Object Types that will be stored in the repository, and includes additional information about how they should be displayed, manipulated, and grouped within the repository tools.

object

object—An object is a metadata type. Objects may be tables, columns, business procedures, or programs found in your business environment.

parser

A parser is a component of the compiler that transforms input text into a data structure, usually a tree, which is suitable for later processing and which captures the implied hierarchy of the input.

property types

Property Type—A property type is the definition of a property, while a property is a value that describes an object. There are seven default properties: Name, Status, Version, Created By, Created Timestamp, Modified By, and Modified Timestamp. For example, the TABLE entity type defines an entity. Instances of an entity type are stored in tables in your business databases. TABLE defines each table instance using the same property types, such as a Name, Created By, Create Date Time, and Description.

relationship

relationship—relationship definitions specify how objects, such as entities, entity sets, and other relationships in the repository are associated.

role

role—A role is a set of repository data items (either view collections or individual object types) to which Read or Read/Write privileges are assigned. These roles are then assigned appropriately to repository users. The Security Manager contains a set of predefined roles. However, the repository administrator can also create additional roles as needed.

root element name

The root element name element, RootElementName, describes the Name of the Root Element in the input XML file. A control file can have only one XML one root element per input XML file.

scanner

A scanner is a program that reads through (scans) program code looking for information that describes data structures (metadata). The scanner creates an output file that you can subsequently load into the <prodname> and merge with object definitions from other data sources.

transformation

Transformation is the process that takes an input XML document and creates an XML output file that you can use as input to the CA Repository Universal XML Exchange.

XSL

XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) is a family of transformation languages that let you describe how files encoded in the XML standard must be transformed or formatted.

XSLT (XSL transformations)

XSLT (XSL transformations) is an XML language for transforming XML documents.