Information¶
Definition¶
Information is the smallest building block in Atfinity. It is always connected to an ontology and once the information is known, it describes an individual instance of that ontology.
Information that has been defined can be used everywhere in Atfinity, e.g. it can be used in documents, rules and conditions.
To better understand the concept of information it helps to look at the examples below.
Examples¶
Information is tightly connected to the concept of an ontology and an instance of an ontology. Let's look at the examples of person and contract.
Information of 'Person'¶
An ontology acts like a template. By looking at a template it might be obvious that it describes a human being because the template includes things like first name, last name, date of birth, civil status, address, domicile country, etc. All these things are information of the ontology 'Person'. As long as the template is not filled and the information stays unknown it does not describe a specific individual, i.e. it is impossible to point at someone. Only once the information is known it is possible to point out an individual instance of 'Person', e.g. someone called Maria Lopez.
Information of 'Contract'¶
Information can be connected to any ontology. If information like contract number, client name and signing date are connected to the ontology 'Contract' and filled in with "115-568", "Maria Lopez" and "27.05.2022", an instance of a contract is created, namely contract 115-568 with Maria Lopez as a client, signed on the 27. May 2022.
Required and optional¶
An information is required unless you say otherwise: with no value it counts as missing in the case. An optional one never counts as missing, and is still shown and still answerable.
Requiredness can also be calculated, which reveals a formula that is evaluated per case. The formula returning true makes the information optional there, so the same information can be required in one case and optional in another.
Edit restrictions¶
A user can provide a value unless you restrict it. A read only information stays visible but its field cannot be edited, the same way a calculated one cannot. Rules still write to it.
This can be calculated too, with a formula evaluated per case that decides when the information is read only. A Structure has no edit restrictions of its own.