Glossary
You can find all the terms below in the index.
- attribute
An attribute is the use by an entity of a particular property.
In addition to the entity and property it links, each attribute is defined by a cardinality telling whether it is repeatable (or not), and mandatory (or not).
An attribute can specialize (ie. overload) its corresponding property’s label, description or type. This doesn’t change the property in any way. This allows to make its usage clearer or make it easier to understand in the context of the entity.
- database
A database is a set of information structured to be easily accessible, organized and updated. It is a way to store and analyze information on a given theme.
- entity
An entity is a subject, a concept, related to the topic of the database it belongs to. An entity is characterized by attributes defining all information necessary to its description.
- item
An item is a composite piece of information. Each item is the concrete manifestation of one entity. Consequently, each of the entity’s attributes has a concrete value: the item’s metadata.
- metadata
A metadata is an atomic piece of information. It is necessarily relative to an attribute. It only has meaning if it is associated with other metadata; the aggregate thus formed is an item.
- property
A property is a reusable characteristic that can be declared differently by one or more entities of a database.
Each property is defined by :
a label (name) to identify it;
a description to understand when to use it ;
a type which constrains the value it can take;
an URI to uniquely identify it.
- reference
A reference is a unique, direct link from one item to one other item. It is a specific type of metadata.
- relationship
A relationship is an association between two items.
- schema
All entities in a database, along with their respective attributes, is called the schema of this database.