Attributes and attribute groups

Attributes

The administration tab in the attribute section shows a list of all existing attributes.
The list’s toolbar contains several categories.

1. Attribute tab: switch to the single attribute view

2. Toolbar:

   1. Filter category:

      1. Number of displayed elements and all available elements

      2. Quick search

      3. Reset button to reset only the filter category (only visible if the list is filtered)

   2. Create attribute

   3. Reset

      1. Reset the list to the initial configuration

3. Delete attribute

Managing attributes in list tab

Create a new attribute

After clicking on the "create element" button, a dropdown with the attribute types appears.
There are different types of attributes:

• Enumeration

• Numeric

• Text

• Date

• Date interval

• Responsibility

• Boolean

After selecting the type for a new attribute, the single element view for the specific attribute is opened in create mode.

Copy an existing enumeration attribute

It is possible to copy enumeration attributes by clicking the "copy" icon in the action column. By clicking the icon, the page for the copied attribute is opened for further editing. The values of the copied enumeration attribute are carried over.

Delete an attribute

Attributes can be deleted by clicking the "delete" icon (3). A confirmation dialog will open.

A date attribute cannot be deleted if one or more date intervals have a dependency on it.

When deleting an attribute, all its data values from all elements of all building block types to which the attribute was assigned are permanently removed from LUY.

Single attribute view

In the single attribute view, all information about the attribute and its properties are shown.

1. Select an attribute

2. Create a new attribute, copy, delete the currently displayed attribute

3. General information about the attribute, such as name, description, type, attribute group and the option to set it as mandatory

4. Attribute editing details

5. “Activate for”-section shows all building block types and relations which can be activated for this attribute

An additional copy button is available for enumeration attributes.

Create a new attribute

When creating an attribute, a unique name is mandatory and at least one building block or relation needs to be selected.

1. Attribute name

2. Save button (only active, if the name field is filled and at least one building block type is selected)

3. Cancel

4. “Activate for”-section shows all building block types and relations which can be activated for this attribute

Editing attributes

Except for the attribute type, every property of an attribute can be edited. Different editors depending on the attribute type are opened by clicking on the pencil icon.

Changes will be shown after reloading LUY by pressing F5.

Group

Select the attribute group for the attribute. By default, the attribute is part of the "default attribute group".

Mandatory attribute

Activate this switch to set it as mandatory.

If this attribute is empty/not assigned, a warning icon will be displayed in the single element view of a building block.

Options for the different attribute types

Enumeration attributes

1. Sorting determines the order of all attribute values.
   If "position" is selected for sorting, the position of a value can be changed by drag-and-drop. The values in the position column will be automatically updated.
   If "alphabetical" is selected for sorting, the list is sorted accordingly. Drag and drop is disabled in this case and the "position" column is not shown.

2. "Multiple values" can be enabled for the enumeration attribute. When this option is activated, multiple values can be selected for one attribute.

3. Create new values by clicking on the plus icon (3) in the name column or click the “create” button (4). More values can be added later, after creating an attribute. New values will be automatically sorted at the end of the list.

“Create new value” dialog for enumeration attribute

1. Name

2. Description

3. Color

4. Checkbox “create another” will reopen an empty create dialog after saving a value

Numeric attributes and ranges

1. Select for uniform distribution
   For better visual clarity in diagram reports with numeric attributes, values are grouped into ranges. If you select "range uniform distributed" when editing the attribute, LUY automatically calculates the ranges so that the values are distributed equally. Ranges can also be set manually.

2. User defined ranges

3. Adding a new bound: The bound is added at the appropriate position.
   Ranges are defined as follows: The first range contains all numbers smaller or equal to the lower bound. The last range contains all numbers larger than the upper bound. Other ranges contain all numbers between the bounds and the value of the upper bound.

Text attributes

There are two types of text attributes: single-line or multi-line. Single-line attributes allow a maximum of 255 characters whereas multi-line attributes can contain an unlimited number of characters.

Only multi-line text attributes allow for the XWiki syntax.

Date attributes

Date attributes can be used either as date or as start/end date for date intervals.

Date attributes used in a date interval cannot be deleted. The dependency in the date intervals must be deleted beforehand.

Date intervals

Date intervals can have a start and end date. It is possible to use a date attribute as start or end date.
The set color of the date interval is used in visualizations and the calendar view.

• When removing a dependency on a date attribute, the start/end values in the interval are kept. Multi-mode can be used to clear the start/end values of a building block type.

• When adding a dependency to a date attribute, the start/end values in the interval are removed and replaced by the values of the start/end date attribute.

If a start and/or end date attribute is used, the action of saving or editing the date interval can take longer than usual.

Responsibility attributes

1. “Multiple values" can be enabled for the responsibility attribute. When this option is activated, multiple responsible persons can be selected. Values of the responsibility attribute can be users and user groups of LUY.

2. Activating "include all users" adds all users of the application into the list of possible values, user groups are removed from the list. The list will be updated automatically when the a new users are added to the application. In this case, users and user groups can't be added or removed manually from the list of "possible values". Deactivating the switch "include all users" will not change the current list. 

3. Add users by clicking on the plus icon (3) in the name column or click the “create” button (4). More users can be added after creating the attribute.

Color is the only editable value for the responsibility attribute. 

“Create new value” dialog for responsibility attribute

1. Dropdown list with the selection of possible users and user groups

2. Color of the attribute value

3. Checkbox “create another” is used to reopen the dialog after saving the value

Boolean attributes

Consists of an “Yes” and a “No” value. This attribute type cannot be further edited. 

“Activate for” section

Each attribute type has to be activated for at least one or more building block types or relations.

1. List of all available building block types

2. List of all available relations

3. Quick search for relations

Default built-in attributes

Aside from custom attributes, described above, LUY contains several built-in attributes for building block elements.

Those are:

• Type = automatically filled by LUY, contianing the building block type of the current element. Read only.

• ID = automatically filled by LUY, contianing the building block elements ID. Read only.

• Last change (last modification time and last modification user= automatically filled by LUY, contianing the name and date of the current element’s last change. Read only.

• Description = Multiline text field. Can be edited by users with edit rights for the current building block type.

• Version built-in = automatically filled by LUY, only available for information systems and technical components. All characters following the "#" in the name of information systems and technical components are interpreted as the version number. Read only.
  See more information about this attribute in our release notes: October 2024 release

Attribute groups

Attributes in LUY are organized into groups. Each attribute group has a name and description and contains a number of attributes.

1. Drag-and-drop to change the attribute group position

2. Group name editor

3. Group icons: Toggle description, open roles and permissions dialog, delete group

4. Checkbox to "show attributes on the top of the single element view"

5. Drag and drop to change the attribute position

6. Create attribute group

Edit attribute groups

To change the attribute name or description, click on pencil icon. The attribute group name must not be blank and has to be unique.

The up/down arrow icon is used to fold/unfold the group description. When you hover the mouse over the group, additional icons appear in the top right corner of the group container (4): set permissions and delete group.

"Show attributes on the top of the single element view" checkbox (5): By setting this option, all attributes within the group are displayed at the top of the single element view instead of the default location within the attribute tab.

Set permissions

The "attribute group permissions" icon opens a dialog to edit the roles and permissions concerning the attribute group. All configured roles can be individually set using “view” and “edit” permissions.

New attribute group

To create an attribute group, click the "new" button and specify the name in the popup dialog.

Delete an attribute group

With the "delete" icon the attribute group can be deleted. All attributes from the deleted group will be moved to the bottom of the attribute group “[Default Attribute Group]”.

Order of attribute groups and attributes

To change the order of attribute groups or attributes, drag them to a new position using the drag handle = (1) and (5). Additionally, attributes can be dragged to another attribute group with this handle.

The group [Default Attribute Group] is static: Its name cannot be edited or deleted and the position cannot be changed.

Naming for attribute and attribute groups

There is a list of internal names that cannot be used for attribute and attribute group names:

Using special characters in LUY attribute names is possible but not recommended. The following characters may cause issues when using iteraQL in the query console or in filters for partial Excel export:

< > ( ) { } [ ] @ & ! # = / | “ ' : . ;