atextor
commented
2 years ago Working group discussion on 2022-01-27: Option 1: Include the SingleEntity Characteristic in the model element overview; Option 2: Provide examples that explain how Properties are linked with Entities. What is modeled, what should be achieved should be clear. Consider adding this in the "Best Practices" documentation module, see #68. WG agrees to implement option 2 for now.
Is your task related to a problem? Please describe. When introducing the concepts of BAMM to other developers, there are sometimes questions about the intention of the Entity element and how it is used together with the other elements of BAMM.
For example, in the overview picture (see https://github.com/OpenManufacturingPlatform/sds-bamm-aspect-meta-model/blob/main/src/docs/modules/ROOT/images/aspect-meta-model.svg ) one could get the initial impression that Entity and Abstract Entity are not referenced by any other element in BAMM. However, this is not the case, since the Characteristic can reference an Entity through the field "dataType". This is explained in sub-page under Data Types (https://openmanufacturingplatform.github.io/sds-documentation/bamm-specification/snapshot/datatypes.html) which might not be the first place to read when looking for the usage of an Entity.
Describe the solution you'd like It would be great if the connection between Characteristic and Entity could be visible in the overview picture for BAMM. One approach could be to draw additional dotted lines with the caption "dataType" to Entity and Abstract Entity.
To reflect that dataType could also be a anySimpleType, I propose to still keep the entry in the box for Characteristic and do not use a full line for the connection to Entity and AbstractEntity.
Describe alternatives you've considered In addition, to adjusting the overview picture, one could also mention the connection between Characteristic and Entity in the documentation page for Entity.
Another option would be to add a Box for dataType to the picture which then has a line to Characteristic and lines to Entity, AbstractEntity, and anySimpleType. But this seems wrong or at least confusing since dataType is not an explicit element of BAMM.