Chapter 2 Building an XML model

Managing external shortcuts through references and data types

 

External shortcuts allow you to share objects between different models. You

 

can define external shortcuts in an XML model, but you cannot use them

 

directly in the model, except as substitution groups for elements (see Detail

 

page in element property sheet).

 

You can define external shortcuts for any global object (with no parent object

 

in the diagram), except for imports, includes, redefines and annotations.

 

Internal shortcuts allow you to share objects between packages of a same

 

model. You cannot define internal shortcuts since an XML model does not

 

support packages.

 

External shortcuts are automatically generated in the following situations:

References

When you use the Reference property to define an element, an attribute, a

 

group or an attribute group, by reference to a similar object in another model

 

opened in the workspace, a shortcut is created between the referencing object

 

and the target object.

 

The shortcut appears in the current model with a specific item in the Browser

 

tree view and the “(Shortcut)” expression in the reference symbol and item.

 

The target object keeps track of the referencing object in the Reference tab of

 

the Dependencies page of its property sheet.

Data types

When you define the data type of an element by selecting a simple or a

 

complex type from another model (using the Browse tool beside the Type

 

dropdown listbox), a shortcut is created between the current element type and

 

the target data type.

 

The shortcut appears in the current model with a specific item in the Browser

 

tree view.

XSM User's Guide

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Sybase XML manual References, Data types