Entity types, link types, and property types
In the i2 Analyze data model, entity types and link types that determine what entities and links can appear in the data to which the schema applies. The property types of those entity and link types determine what properties the entities and links can have.
Entity types and link types
- Identifiers, so that types can refer to each other in rules about their relationships
- Names that users see when they interact with entities and links of particular types
- Definitions of the properties that entities and links of particular types can contain
As well as the common features, each entity type contains the icon that represents entities with that type in visualizations. Link types do not contain icons, but they do contain lists of 'from' and 'to' entity type identifiers. For a link that has a particular link type, these lists determine what entity types the entities at each of the link can have. For example, a link of type Calls might be valid in both directions between two entities of type Person. An Owns link might be valid between a Person and a Car, but would not be allowed in the opposite direction.
For an i2 Analyze schema to be valid, any identifiers that appear in the 'from' and 'to' lists of link types must also appear as the identifiers of entity types.
Property types
In an i2 Analyze schema, entity types and link types both contain property types. For an entity or link record that has a particular type, the property types specify the names and the logical types of the properties that the entity or link can have.
