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.