Sample Population Data Management
The ability to verify Fact Types with Fact Instances, using sample population data is an important part of the ORM methodology. How should an ORM tool, like nORMa, make the process of adding and managing sample data more efficient and effective?
During the tool development process, different areas, features and aspects of the tool have been given greater or lesser priority. It seems that Sample Population management has been given a lower priority than other tool features. That's understandable. Eventually, a complete tool will need a better system for handling Sample Population Data.
Though a number of improvements have been included in various CTPs, there's still much that can be made better. A number of requests have been put forward to make it easier to tab through value entry boxes, etc.... While simple improvements like these would be welcome, are there more important considerations for SPD management?
Consider the current way that the tool flags errors, where SPD conflicts with a Fact Type constraint:
Employee(.id) has FirstName() [with an IUC over Role1]
Populating this with sample data gives an error result if there was a violation (as it should), and no error if the constraint is not violated. Adding:
Employee has LastName [with a mandatory and IUC on Role1]
If you do not enter SPD for this Fact Type, there will as many error messages as you had sample instances in the first FT population - as the mandatory constraint was not satisfied for these. The tool correctly adds the error messages for the violations; but is this useful? I don't think the intent is to force an "all or nothing" use of sample data, any more than it is to flood the errors window. How should the SPD feature and the error messaging feature work together? Is the answer to use customization to filter the error reports, or change the way the SPD feature works?
If you have thoughts on this or other aspects of the SPD feature of the tool, please add them to this thread. Do you use the feature? If not, what would it need to become useful to you? When the time comes to focus on the Sample Population Data management features of the tool, the team will have your input to guide them.
BRN..