documentation.adoc



Keyword

Table of Contents

Glossary

Types of Keywords

Simple Key-Value lists
Extended Key-Value lists with special Attributes
Complex Keyword as own entity


Simply said: A keyword is a list of key-value pairs.


These values for example can be used as content to choose from (e.g. a combobox-list).


Glossary


Keyword Container

A keyword container is the element that keeps several entries of Keywords together. That could be for example something like "Contact-Status". Keep in mind that this done virtually and not in the actual way of storage.

Keyword Entry

A keyword entry is a specific child-element of a keyword container. For the upper example "Contact-Status" this could be "Active", "Inactive", etc.

Keyword

Keyword describes the whole set of elements like keyword container and keyword entry. It’s more like a virtual bracket for the whole construct.


Types of Keywords


Simple Key-Value lists


The Structure

abstract structure of keywords

digraph g {
  rankdir="BT"
  bgcolor="#222222"

  graph [ dpi = 100 ]
  node [ shape = box color="#dddddd" fontcolor="#dddddd" fontname = "Consolas"];
  edge [ color="#dddddd" ]
  { rank=max;  kwdContainer [label="Keyword Container"] }
  { rank=same; kwdEntry [label="Keyword Entry"] }
  { rank=next; entry1 [label="Entry 1" shape=ellipse] }
  { rank=same entry1; entryN [label="Entry N" shape=ellipse] }

  kwdEntry -> kwdContainer;
  kwdEntry -> kwdContainer;
  entry1 -> kwdEntry
  entryN -> kwdEntry
}


Take a look at the following table. Beware that these are not the actual db-column-names but the information what’s represented.


Table 1. simplified, abstract representation how keywords are actually stored


UID
key-ID
tile
container


 unique key 1
1-key-value A
one
container 1


unique key 2
2-key-value A
two
container 1


unique key 3
3-key-value A
three
container 1


 unique key 4
1-key-value B
I
container 2


unique key 5
2-key-value B
II
container 2


And, to clarify an example:


Table 2. simplified, example representation how keywords are acutllay stored


 UID
key-ID
tile
container


db1792cd
de-DE
German (Germany)
Language


62df7f0ba
en-GB
English (United Kingdom)
Language


126229d9
fr-FR
French (France)
Language


3508929f
ab7b1885
active
ContactStatus


52ce5785
2b2091eb
inactive
ContactStatus


Extended Key-Value lists with special Attributes

Basically this is a extension of the [Simple Key-Value lists].
Sometimes it’s necessary to have some more properties within a keyword-entry.
Example:


You’ve got a Keyword-container for Types of Communication with basically the following values:


mobile phone


landline phone


email-address


web-address


If you want to add a general type of information like "PHONE", "MAIL", "WEB" you’ve to add a keyword-attribute to the keyword-entry where you can store that information.


Complex Keyword as own entity

Sometimes you’ve a special case where the keyword entity cannot provide all the functionality.


In that case you can always define you own entity and create your own database structure to represent all the information and provide all the functions you need.


As an example, this could be the Country_Entity