Aras Innovator Terminology

Technobabble (aka Terminology)

Innovator uses a number of terms that are either completely unique or just defined a little differently than in other systems. I'll attempt to define a few of them here, with more to come later:

ItemType

An ItemType is a construct that defines the data structure and behavior of its instances (items), analogous to a class in the object-oriented world. Unlike a class, however, an ItemType is created using a simple user interface and stored in a database, making it much more dynamic and adaptable. Each ItemType has a corresponding table in the database to store its instances.

Item

An Item is an instance of an ItemType, and the basic building block of Innovator. Simply put, EVERYTHING in Innovator is an Item, be it a Document, a Purchase Order, a Form, a Workflow or whatever else. Each item corresponds to a row in the ItemType's table.

RelationshipType

RelationshipTypes define which ItemTypes are related to one another, and the behaviors of the relationship. RelationshipTypes have a Source ItemType (the parent), an optional Related ItemType (the child) and a Relationship ItemType.

Relationship

Also known as a Relationship Item, a Relationship is an instance of a Relationship ItemType. A Relationship has a Source Item and an optional Related Item. When no Related Item is specified, the Relationship is known as a Null Relationship.

Property

A Property is a piece of information tracked about an Item. Each Property has a name, a label, a data type, and a number of other properties to define its behavior (yes, properties have their own properties, but that's self-describing for you). A Property corresponds to a column in the ItemType's table.

Form

A Form is a definable piece of the Innovator user interface, often used to view and edit instances of a particular ItemType. Forms are configured using a drag and drop utility, stored in the database, and rendered dynamically.

Field

A Field is a user interface primitive used to display information on a Form. Fields may be, but are not required to be bound to a Property.

Identity

Identities form the basis for the Innovator security model. Identities are hierarchical, and may represent a user, a group, a group of groups, and so on.

AML

Adaptive Markup Language is the XML dialect that drives Innovator. All communication between the Innovator client and server is done in AML. A future post will go into detail on the dialect, but for now let's just call this the secret sauce.

IOM

The Innovator Object Model is an object API to Innovator. It is used in both client- and server-side methods to manipulate Innovator items.