Designing schemas

The schemas in an i2 Analyze deployment describe how the data in your investigations is expressed as the entities, links, and properties of the i2 Analyze data model. Before you start to use Schema Designer, you should have a clear idea of the schema that you want to create or update.

Whether you're creating a schema or editing an existing one, you need to understand both the i2 data model and the data you're working with. If you're developing a new schema, Schema Designer becomes part of the iterative development process. If you're modifying a schema, Schema Designer helps you to retain consistency as you make your changes.

Data modeling

The detail of how you model data for your organization can be different depending on whether your schema is for an Information Store or an external data source:

  • For an Information Store schema, you often have a body of existing data to work with, as well as analysts who are familiar with it. These schemas can be quite large, describing most or all of the data in the organization.

  • For a connector (or a gateway) schema, the schema is tied closely to one or more connectors, and it's often developed in parallel with them. These schemas are generally smaller, describing only the data that the connector can return.

In either case, Schema Designer presents and allows you to manipulate schemas in terms of the i2 Analyze data model. For an example of understanding data and then describing it in terms of entity, link, and property types, see Designing an i2 Analyze connector schema in the i2 Connect SDK.

Schema development

If your deployment of i2 Analyze includes an Information Store, its schema is a fundamental part of that deployment. The Information Store's schema affects the structure of its data storage, and as a result it's difficult to make changes after the deployment enters production.

When you create an Information Store schema, you can employ a schema development environment that allows you to iterate and test your design before you commit to its final form.

Gateway and connector schemas are not constrained in the same way, but a schema development environment can still be a useful way to iterate quickly during schema development.

If Analyst's Notebook users will connect to your i2 Analyze deployment, then as your schema matures you should begin to develop the charting schemes that determine how data from i2 Analyze is represented by the items on Analyst's Notebook charts.

Schema maintenance

As suggested above, the changes that you can make to a schema after you've deployed it to users depend on whether it's for an Information Store, an i2 Connect gateway, or a connector to an external data source. Schema Designer validates your edits to ensure consistency, while i2 Analyze itself determines whether the changes are permitted in context.

For more information about adding, modifying, and replacing the schemas in a live i2 Analyze deployment, see the configuration documentation.