Adding a SubmodelElementCollection to multiple Shells

[Kuchsn]

Hi! I'd like to ask your input on how to handle a set of repetitive data when creating a series of shells.

We created the submodel element collection "contact information", which will stay the same for all our products. Since we can't add one SMC to multiple AASs we presumably need to add it as reference, which we were unable to do so far.

    contact_information = ContactInformation.create(
        street=os.getenv("AAS_STREET"),
        zip=os.getenv("AAS_ZIP"),
        city_town=os.getenv("AAS_CITY"),
        national_code=os.getenv("AAS_NATIONAL_CODE")
    )
    nameplate = DigitalNameplate.create(
            str(identifier),
            uri_of_the_product=str(uri),
            manufacturer_name=str(element.xpath(xpaths['ManufacturerName'])[0]),
            contact_information=contact_information,
            manufacturer_product_designation=str(manuproddesi),
            year_of_construction=str(element.xpath(xpaths['YearOfConstruction'])[0]),
            manufacturer_article_number=str("4242")
        )

        class DigitalNameplate:
            @classmethod
            def create(cls, identifier: str, uri_of_the_product: str, manufacturer_name: str,
                       contact_information: SubmodelElementCollection, manufacturer_product_designation: str,
                       year_of_construction: str, manufacturer_article_number: str) -> Submodel:

               #....

        submodel.submodel_element.add(contact_information)

        return submodel

    aas = model.AssetAdministrationShell(
            asset_information=asset_information,
            id_=str(aas_identifier),
            id_short=aasx.NameFriendlyfier().get_friendly_name(myAAS.get_submodel_property_value(nameplate, "ManufacturerProductDesignation")),
            submodel={model.ModelReference.from_referable(nameplate)},
        )

        object_store.add(aas)
        object_store.add(nameplate)

[Kuchsn]

Is the ContactInformation SubmodelElementCollection intended to be freshly instantiated and copied in each of the Submodels?

[s-heppner]

As far as I know, there is at the moment no way to globally reference a SubmodelElementCollection (as in across multiple Submodels) within the model itself.

I therefore see multiple options:

• Put the contact information in its own globally Identifiable Submodel with nothing else and reference that Conctact InformationSubmodel in multiple different AASs
• If you are using a Server, using the official AAS API, you may be able to use a ReferenceElement that contains the Submodel Identifier and the idShort-Path to the SubmodelElementCollection (I know very little about that, so I can't say anything about how that would work, or if this is expected)

However, if you want to use and follow a standardized submodel template, I'm afraid instantiating the SubmodelElementCollection each time anew is the only way to be compliant to the template. Programmatically you may want to have the contact information in one point only (single source of truth), but when you offer the AASs to the outside, you must give a copy each time.

I hope that helps.