The configuration of a Relationship field blocks these field settings:

• Is Required

• Part of Key

• Allow Multiple Items

Request

• Allow the field to be part of the key.

• Allow the field to be required.

• Allow to select multiple related artifacts, for that field, also when part of the key.

WHY?

Let me give you an example.

• Assume you have a Data Domain Map established through a Model asset.
  Model : Data Domain Map

• Assume you store the Business Glossary in a Business Asset.
  Business Asset : Business Glossary

• You want to enable autonomy to manage the business glossary within each data domain. Accordingly, you might have two terms in distinct data domains with identical label, e.g. Name, but with different definitions.

  • The Marketing data domain defines Name as the concatenation of the First Name and Last Name.

  • The Finance data domain defines Name as the Last Name.

• Accordingly, terms in the Business Glossary are unique by applying the Key on

  • the Relationship field Data Domain that relates an artifact in Model : Data Domain Map – The Data Domain is required!
    and

  • the Simple Text field Label.

That is not possible today.

• Potentially, you want to attach one term of the Business Glossary to many Data Domains, since it is an enterprise terminology. Now, you want to associate many Data Domains in the Relationship field Data Domain.

This is not possible either.

As-Is

Relationship

The relationship is configured as such:

• Subject: Business Asset : Business Glossary

• Predicate: is a characteristic of / is characterized (Simple) by

• Object: Business Asset : Business Glossary

• Subject Cardinality: Many

• Object Cardinality: Many

Note that Subject and Object are identical!

Relationship Field Settings

When configuring the relationship on Business Asset : Business Glossary, it is impossible to select the direction of the relationship. The only relationship direction possible is is a characteristic of Business Glossary.

The Relationship is only in one direction

For Relationship Lookup field types, it is possible to select the direction of the relationship:

• is characterized by Business Glossary (<-)

• is a characteristic of Business Glossary (->)

• is a characteristic of Business Glossary or is characterized by Business Glossary (<->)

Idea

Allow to configure the direction of the relationship for Relationship field types, as done for Relationship Lookup field types.

As-Is

When selecting a related asset in the drop-down element from the Relationship Field Type, the related BG artifact is displayed by using the fields that are key to the asset, instead of following its Display Format.

Example

• Meta-model design

  • The Business Asset has one field that forms the Key, i.e. Business Definition {BusinessDefinition}, an HTML field type.

  • The Business Asset has been edited with Display Format: {Name}

• In operations mode

  • When selecting an asset from this Asset Type via Relationship field type, the to-be-related asset is displayed by means of its key, i.e. the Business Definition {BusinessDefinition}.

• Clicking on the information button, you can see the details of that asset, and discover its {Name}.

This results in poor User Experience.

Idea

We ask to ensure that the display format of an asset is always respected.