Assigning a Prototype to an Attribute

To assign a prototype attribute to an attribute, reveal the Prototype column in table mode, and select a prototype attribute from the pop-up menu. The prototype attributes that appear in the pop-up list in the Prototype column include prototype attributes defined in any entity in any model in the application’s model group, which includes the current model.

Figure 4-4 shows an attribute named lastModified which inherits characteristics from the prototype attribute called lastModified. As you can see in the figure, characteristics that attributes derive from their prototype are colored differently than are other characteristics.

Figure 4-4 An attribute using a prototype

When you use prototype attributes, in some cases you want to derive only some of the values from the prototype. To do this, just set the characteristic of the attribute to the value you want. The rest of the derived characteristics still resolve to the values set in the prototype. The prototype selected in the Prototypes column then appears with an asterisk. Figure 4-5 shows an attribute that uses only part of a prototype definition.

Figure 4-5 An attribute using part of a prototype