Product specifications

Appendix A Object Types Composite Object Types
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minimum structure for the instance, not the complete structure. The minimum
structure can be extended in each instance, but not reduced.
In the same way, it is allowed to create additional subobjects below any formal
instance. They will be treated as normal formal instances, and be propagated to the
actual instances.
The formal instances themselves can also be of composite types, and they must
follow the same restrictions as actual instances. The types rules are here interpreted
in the context of the structure specified by the formal instance list, and not the
Object Type Structure.
Structure Propagation
When you make type changes they take effect immediately. You can add or remove
formal instances, and already instantiated objects of the composite type will directly
be updated accordingly.
When a structure aspect is deleted below a formal instance list, the change is always
propagated to all corresponding embedded instances. If a formal instance is
removed completely from the type, all corresponding embedded instances will be
deleted as well. However, this delete operation will be made using the Obsolete
Handling functionality, which saves the deleted aspect in an import/export file and
stores the file using File Set Distribution. This makes it possible to retrieve deleted
aspects and place them on some other object.
To retrieve an obsolete-handled aspect, go to the Obsolete Structure and expand the
object named with the current date. Below it you find objects representing obsolete-
handled delete operations. Select the object with the name “Formal Instance Delete”
and the time for the operation, e.g. “14:55:33”. Open its Obsolete Objects aspect,
and click on the Open import/export file button. This will open the Import/Export
tool with the wanted file, where you can drag wanted aspects back to the system.
Aspect Propagation
The aspects on the formal instances are configured using the Aspect Control tab of
the Formal Instance Definition aspect, in the same way as aspects on the top-level
object of the composite type are configured in the Object Type Definition aspect.