Plant Project Database - Property Mapping

Properties can be mapped on a single column as well as on several columns. In the 2nd case a special column processor should be defined.

Editing Property Mapping

To map a property it is necessary to do the following:

• Select the property in Class Editor's "Properties" panel on the right pane and click the "Edit" button. The mapping for the class should be created in advance. Let's do it for the "COMMENT" property of class "EQUIPMENT". The Edit Property mapping dialog box is displayed

• Select the table and the column where the value of the property is stored (see Fig.33):
  • Select "EQUIPMENT" in Left combo box (this is table).
  • Select "COMMENT1" in right combo box (this is column).
• If the property is intended to be read only check the "Read Only" check box in right top corner of the dialog box.
• Click "OK. The property mapping info will appear in the summary panel.
• Use the "Edit" and "Remove" buttons (see Fig.34) to edit or remove existing property mappings.

Note: The scope of tables available for a property mapping is restricted by the tables associated with the class (see Class Tables).

Multi-Column Property Mapping

The creation of a multi-column mapping is performed in same dialog box.
Let's modify the "COMMENT" property and make it multi-column:

• Open the property edit dialog by clicking the "Edit" button.
• Click the "+" button in the list and select an additional column: "EQUIP.COMMENT2"
  ("-" button is used for removing a column mapping)
• The "OK" button is disabled and the exclamation icon is blinking. This is because it is necessary to select a processor for that property. A Processor is a class that will merge the column values into a single value of a property while reading the data and it will parse them back while writing.

• Select the Processor in the combo box. The list of processors is dynamic. For information about the creation of your own custom processor see below. By default the following processors are supported:
  • Upper Layer Plug-in - Aggregating and parsing will be performed by ECPlugin layered over SqlDd ECPlugin.
  • Bentley.EC.SQLAdapter.SeparatorProcessor - Built-in processor that concatenates values with a specified separating character
  • Bentley.EC.SQLAdapter.OptionalUnitsProcessor - Sample processor that does almost the same as above one and concatenates values as follows: <FirstColumnValue> [<SecondColumnValue>]. Second column value is considered as units of value in the first column. In our case select Bentley.EC.SQLAdapter.SeparatorProcessor.
• Next define ";" as separator

Defining your own processor requires similar actions as for defining primary key generators (see Primary Keys Generators), i.e. implement interface defined in Bentley.EC.SQLAdapter.dll assembly:
Bentley.EC.SQLAdapter.ITableColumnProcessor
An Assembly with a class implementing the interface should be placed in to the same folder as Bentley.EC.SQLAdapter.dll. Usually this is the "Extensions" folder of the installation folder

Note: in the same manner it is possible to map custom processers for InstanceID, Name and Label. The Extension interface is identical.

⇐Back to Plant Project Database - Relationship Mapping

⇑Main OPPID - How to use the Class Editor Mapping Extension for the Plant Project Database