Extended Attributes (Profile)

Extended attributes allow you to define additional metadata for your objects, and can be defined for metaclasses, stereotypes, and criteria, in order to:

Control generation for a given generation target. In this case, extended attributes are defined in the target language or DBMS of the model. For example, in the Java object language, several metaclasses have extended attributes used for generating Javadoc comments.
Further define model objects in extended model definitions. For example, in the extended model definition for Sybase ASA Proxy tables, the extended attribute called GenerateAsProxyServer in the DataSource metaclass is used to define the data source as a proxy server.

Note:

By default, extended attributes are listed on a generic Extended Attributes tab in the object property sheet. You can customize the display of attributes by inserting them into forms (see Forms (Profile)). If all the extended attributes are allocated to forms, the generic page will not be displayed.

Creating an Extended Attribute
You can create an extended attribute for a metaclass, stereotype, or criterion.
Extended Attribute Properties
You specify the properties for an extended attribute by selecting its entry in the resource editor.
Linking Objects Through Extended Attributes
When you specify the [Object] data type, you enable the display of the Object type, Object stereotype, and Inverse collection name fields.
Creating an Extended Attribute Type
You can create an extended attribute type in the Shared folder in order to define the data type and authorized values of extended attributes. Creating extended attribute types allows you to reuse the same list of values for several extended attributes without having to write code. These types are available in the extended attribute Data Type list.

Parent topic: Extending Your Models with Profiles