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Managing attributes

You can add, edit and remove attributes as required. All attributes in the model belong to the Attributes Domain. When adding a new attribute, you can either select an existing attribute from the Attributes Domain or create a new Attributes Domain. Both of these options are described in the table below.

Attribute management options
To Do This

Add an attribute from the attributes domain

  1. Click the New Attribute button in the Attributes toolbar.

    The New Attribute window opens.

  2. To designate the attribute as a business key, select the Key check box.
  3. From the Attribute domain drop-down list, select the attribute domain you wish to add.
  4. To edit the selected attribute domain on-the-fly, click the edit button located after the Attribute domain drop-down list. This will open the Edit - AttributeDomainName window. Then, continue from Step 2 in Edit an attribute domain.
  5. In the Attribute name field, optionally change the default instance name for the attribute domain.

    You can create multiple instances of a single Attribute Domain. This is especially useful if you want to use the same Attribute Domain across multiple tables, with each "instance" having its own unique name. This also allows you to edit the properties of each attribute without affecting the other attributes, despite all the Attribute Domain instances sharing a common Attribute Domain. For example, if the Attribute Domain name is "ID", you could create one instance for it in the "Categories" entity named "CategoryID" and another instance in the "Employees" entity named "EmployeeID". If, however, you edit the parent Attribute Domain attribute, all instances of that attribute will be updated as well.

  6. To add a prefix to the attribute name, enter the desired prefix in the Prefix field.

    Adding a prefix to an attribute name allows you to add multiple instances of the same attribute domain. For example, the attribute "Employee" could become two different attributes: "ReportsTo_Employee" and "HiredBy_Employee".

  7. Set the History Type and Satellite number. When the History Type is set to 2, a new record will be created in the data warehouse each time an attribute value changes.
  8. In the Satellite/Hub field, optionally change the satellite number. Note that the satellite number can only be changed when the History Type is set to 2. For an explanation of why this is so, see The Manage Model window.
  9. To add an expression, click the fx button located after the Expression field and then continue from Creating expressions.
  10. Click OK to save your settings.

Create a new attribute domain and add it to the model

  1. Click the New Attribute button in the Attributes toolbar.

    The New Attribute window opens.

  2. To designate the attribute as a business key, select the Key check box.
  3. Click the plus sign to the right of the Attribute domain drop-down list. 

    The New Attribute Domain window opens.

    1. Specify a Name for the attributes domain.

    2. From the Type drop-down list, select one of the available data types.

    3. If the selected data type requires further configuration, additional fields will be displayed. For example, when Decimal is selected, the Length and Scale fields will be displayed. Set the values as desired.

    4. Optionally, specify a Description.

    5. Click OK to add the newly created attribute domain to the Attribute domain field and close the New Attribute Domain window.

  4. Continue from Step 5 in Add an existing attribute domain above.

    Information note

    You can also add new attribute domains via the Manage Attribute Domains window. For more information, see Managing the Attributes Domain

Add a relationship

See Creating and managing relationships.

Add an attribute to all Satellite tables and the Hub table

You can use the Add to all Satellites and Hub option to define the same Primary Index for the Hub table and all Satellite tables.

Select the desired attribute and then click the Add to all Satellites and Hub toolbar button. The attribute is added to the Hub table and to all the Satellite tables.

Edit an attribute

  1. Select the attribute you want to edit and then click the Edit button in the Attributes toolbar.

    The Edit - AttributeName window opens

  2. Continue from Step 2 of Add an attribute from the attributes domain above.

  1. Double-click the attribute you want to edit.

    The values in the attribute row become editable.

  2. Continue from Step 2 of Add an attribute from the attributes domain above.

Bulk edit history types and satellite numbers

See Bulk Editing History types and Satellite numbers.

Show an attribute's lineage

See Lineage and impact analysis.

Remove an attribute

  1. Select the attribute(s) you want to delete.
  2. Click the Delete button in the Attributes toolbar.
  3. When prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.

Change the attribute order

Select the attribute you want to move and use the Move Up/Move to Top and Move Down /Move to Bottom toolbar buttons to move the attribute.

Search for an attribute

In the Search lookup field, start typing. Only attributes that match the search string will be displayed.

Information note

When searching for an attribute based on the attribute name, you must add the prefix "name:". For example, if you want to search for an attribute that contains “ar” in its name, type “name: ar” in the Search look-up field.

Manage the Attributes Domain

See Managing the Attributes Domain.

Create an expression for an attribute

See Add an attribute from the attributes domain or Edit an attribute above.

Export the attributes to a CSV file

Select an entity from the Entities list on the left of the Manage Model window and then select Export to CSV from the drop-down menu in the Attributes toolbar. Depending on your browser settings, you will either be prompted to download the <entityname>_Attributes.csv file or it will be downloaded to your default Downloads location.

Information note

The CSV format differs slightly from the CSV format when Exporting and importing projects using the CLI.

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