Cascading Attributes Tab

Administration > Working with the Type and Attribute Management Utility > Managing Types > Type Information Page > Cascading Attributes Tab

The Cascading Attributes tab is available only on types unique to PTC FlexPLM.

Cascading attributes occur when rules are defined that cause the value selected for one attribute to determine the available values for another attribute. The simplest cascading attribute rule is made up of an If condition and a Then clause. More complex rules can be created by adding one or more And If conditions to the rule. The attributes used in an If or And If condition are considered to be driver attributes, while the attribute used in a Then clause is considered to be a driven attribute. The If and And If attributes drive the value of the Then attribute.

For example, a site could define the following cascading attribute rules:

• If Class=Bottoms, then Sub-Class=Skirts, Jeans

• If Class=One Piece, then Sub-Class=Dresses

• If Class=Bottoms, and if Sub-Class=Jeans, then Item Type=Cargo, Five Pocket, Pencil

This means that when a user selects a value of Bottoms for the Class attribute, then the values available for the Sub-Class attribute are limited to Skirts and Jeans, but if the user instead selects a value of One Piece for the Class attribute, then the available value for the Sub-Class attribute is Dresses. Additionally, if a user selects a value of Bottoms for the Class attribute, and a value of Jeans for the Sub-Class attribute, then the values available for the Item Type attribute are Cargo, Five Pocket, and Pencil.

To be used in a cascading attribute rule, an attribute must have a string data type, and a single, enabled enumerated value list constraint directly backed by a global enumeration. For more information, see Enumerations and Cascading Attribute Rules. For PTC FlexPLM to recognize the attributes in a cascading attribute set, the type must be set Driven.

The Cascading Attributes tab of the type information page displays a tree of all of the cascading attribute rules that have been defined for attributes on the current type. Each top-level node in the tree is the driver attribute in one or more cascading attribute rules. Expand each top-level attribute node to see the If and And If driver attributes for the rules nested as intermediate nodes, ending with the Then clause with its corresponding driven attribute as the leaf node of the tree. A cascading attribute rule is displayed under the top-level attribute of its primary If condition. When multiple rules use the same driver attributes, these overlapping driver attributes are displayed as a single node. Additional driver attributes (for more complex rules) and the driven attributes for each rule display as nodes beneath.

If there are no values specified for the Then clause of a cascading attribute rule, then No Legal Values displays for the leaf node of that rule.

From the Cascading Attributes tree you can take the following actions:

• Expand or collapse all nodes in the tree by clicking the expand all icon

or the collapse all icon

• Expand or collapse individual nodes in the tree by clicking the expand icon

or collapse icon

next to the node.

• Create a new rule by clicking the new rule icon

or by selecting the New Rule action from the right-click actions menu of an If, And If, or Then node. For more information, see Creating a New Cascading Attribute Rule.

• View the complete set of values that a user would encounter in the user-interface based on the cascading attribute rules and attribute constraints by clicking the attribute set report icon

. For more information, see Attribute Set Report.

• Enable and disable rules inherited from a parent type by clicking the enable inherited rules icon

or disable inherited rules icon

. For more information, see Inherited Rules.

• Hide and show rules inherited from a parent type by selecting the Hide Inherited Rules action or Show Inherited Rules from the drop-down-list next to the Find in tree search field. The icon displayed for the drop-down list identifies the current state of inherited rules, either hidden or shown, and the action to change that state is selectable from the drop-down list:

◦

—displays when inherited rules are shown. Select the Hide Inherited Rules action from the drop-down list to hide inherited rules.

◦

—displays when inherited rules are hidden. Select the Show Inherited Rules action from the drop-down list to show inherited rules.

Inherited rules are indicated with the inheritance icon

. For more information, see Inherited Rules.

• Edit an existing condition by selecting Edit Condition from the right-click actions menu of an If or And If node. For more information, see Editing a Cascading Attribute Rule Condition.

• Edit an existing rule by selecting Edit Rule from the right-click actions menu of a Then node. For more information, see Editing a Cascading Attribute Rule.

• Delete existing rules by selecting Delete Rules from the right-click actions menu of an If, And If, or Then node. Only locally created rules can be deleted; rules inherited from a parent type cannot be deleted. The location where the delete action is invoked determines the extent of what is deleted:

◦ When invoked from a Then clause leaf node, only the specific cascading attribute rule for that Then clause is deleted. If that is the only rule applicable for any of the intermediate tree nodes (If, or And If), then those nodes are deleted. Otherwise, the intermediate nodes remain.

◦ When invoked from an intermediate If or And If condition node, all rules with the same set of If or And If conditions are deleted.

◦ If all And If and Then nodes under an If node are deleted, the If node is deleted as well.

The actions available for the Cascading Attributes tree are only available in edit mode. All changes made to the Cascading Attributes tree are not persisted until you click Done or Save on the Manage Types window to exit edit mode.