dmaClass_ClassDescription

A metadata object describing a class.

Class ID: dmaClass_ClassDescription
Superclass: Metadata

Interfaces

Properties

Name	Impl. Required	System Gen'ed	Read-Only	Value Required	Type	Cardinality	Required Class
OIID	-	Yes	Yes	-	String	Scalar
Class Description	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Object	Scalar	Class Description
This	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	Object	Scalar	Class Description
Create Pending	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	Boolean	Scalar
Update Pending	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	Boolean	Scalar
Delete Pending	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	Boolean	Scalar
Display Name	Yes	-	-	Yes	String	Scalar
Descriptive Text	Yes	-	-	Yes	String	Scalar
Ids	Yes	-	-	Yes	ID	List
Superclass Description	Yes	-	-	-	Object	Scalar	Class Description
Superclass Property Count	Yes	-	-	Yes	Integer32	Scalar
Immediate Subclass Descriptions	Yes	-	-	-	Object	List	Class Description
Name Property Index	Yes	-	-	-	Integer32	Scalar
Property Descriptions	Yes	-	-	Yes	Object	List	Property Description
Has Include Subclasses	Yes	-	-	Yes	Boolean	Scalar
Has Proper Subclass Properties	Yes	-	-	Yes	Boolean	Scalar
Proper Subclass Property Descriptions	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	Object	List	Property Description

Detailed Description

There is one Class Description object for each DMA class, including those created dynamically (for example, rows in a search result set). Each class has an instance of the Class Description object, including the Class Description class itself. However, in order to avoid non-terminating recursion, the value of the property dmaProp_ClassDescription is NULL for a Class Description of a Class Description. Every Class Description object has the same set of properties defined. (The values of these properties are different for different classes, of course.)

Using the CreateObject( ) method on the Class Description class interface enables you to create an object of that class. The list of Property Description objects in the Class Description object describe the properties of a given class.

Property Descriptions

• OIID {dmaProp_OIID}
Property Inherited from DMA

• Class Description {dmaProp_ClassDescription}
Property Inherited from DMA

• This {dmaProp_This}
Property Inherited from DMA

• Create Pending {dmaProp_CreatePending}
Property Inherited from DMA

• Update Pending {dmaProp_UpdatePending}
Property Inherited from DMA

• Delete Pending {dmaProp_DeletePending}
Property Inherited from DMA

• Display Name {dmaProp_DisplayName}
Property Inherited from Metadata

• Descriptive Text {dmaProp_DescriptiveText}
Property Inherited from Metadata

• Ids {dmaProp_Ids}
Property Inherited from Metadata

• Superclass Description {dmaProp_SuperclassDescription}

The value of this property is the Class Description object of the class that is the immediate superclass of the current class in the DMA property class hierarchy.

The superclass is unique, because the DMA hierarchy supports only single inheritance. This property must have a value except when the current object describes dmaClass_DMA.

• Superclass Property Count {dmaProp_SuperclassPropertyCount}

The number of properties in the immediate superclass (and therefore inherited by this class).

This number reflects the ordered count of properties inherited from the superclass.

• Immediate Subclass Descriptions {dmaProp_ImmediateSubclassDescriptions}

The value of this property is a list of Class Description objects, one for every class that is an immediate subclass of the current class.

All of the Class Description objects in this list have a Class Description object for the current class as the value of their Superclass Description property.

• Name Property Index {dmaProp_NamePropertyIndex}

The index of the property that serves as the "name" for instances of the class being described.

The value of this property is an index into the list of property description objects of the current Class Description object (see dmaProp_PropertyDescriptions). The Property Description object at the designated index describes the property that is considered by client applications to indicate the "name" of the object instance being described. The purpose of this property is to make it as convenient as possible for DMA clients to access the "name" of the current object instance.

• Property Descriptions {dmaProp_PropertyDescriptions}

A list of Property Description objects describing this class's properties.

The properties inherited from ancestor classes occur first in the list, and the list ends with the properties introduced by this class, i.e., the "native" properties. The value of the property dmaProp_SuperclassPropertyCount is the number of properties that are inherited.

• Has Include Subclasses {dmaProp_HasIncludeSubclasses}

This flag is set if this class supports "include subclasses" queries.

• Has Proper Subclass Properties {dmaProp_HasProperSubclassProperties}

This flag is set if this class supports "include descendant properties" queries.

• Proper Subclass Property Descriptions {dmaProp_ProperSubclassPropertyDescriptions}

This is a list of all properties of all the subclasses of the current class.

This property is used to facilitate "include subclasses" queries. If a property occurs more than once in the descendant subclasses and has different characteristics in some of them, its occurrence in this list resolves how the property should be treated in "include subclasses" queries.