I created 4 attachments in my Data Dictionary, and bound those attachments with values to an Entity in my model.
I also then used the Managed Attributes page in Team Server to associate those attachments to Logical Entities in Team Server. My expectation was that I would see those attachments listed separately when I viewed that Logical Entity (which did happen), and the values would be displayed under those attachments - that didn't happen. The values associated with the same attachments were shown under the 'Attachments' entry, but there were no values under the separate list of the attachment names. And annoyingly, the list under the Attachments heading came up in a different order than they were attached, which in this case is important.
And if the 'managed attribute' attachment is edited in Team Server on an entity, that information is not viewable from the model.
Am I doing something wrong here, it looks like I've got one definition of an attachment, but the values can be manipulated separately in Team Server vs in the model if I expose these attachments in Team Server. Is this the intended behavior?
Anybody else finding different behavior?
Hi Sue. When you create attachments in the data dictionary and then bind them to entities in the model, you will see the attachments (and bound values) for the entities when published in team server.
When using attachments to define custom attributes in Team Server, the intended purpose and behavior is different: You create the attachments in the data dictionary so that they are available to use as custom attributes in team server. You can add custom attributes to several concepts (glossaries, terms etc). That simply creates additional fields that you can edit in team server, in addition to the provided fields in the editor for that concept. You would typically create different attachments for this purpose, rather than re-using those that have already been created for usage within the models themselves. I typically create them in a separate dictionary.
Thanks for the clarification Ron. So then the intended design is that Team Server users are not modifying what is in the data model attachments, and best practice is not to expose attachments in Team Server Manage Attributes that you intend to be populated in the data model.
Any thought given to allowing Team Server attachments to be defined in Team Server, rather than in a data model dictionary? It's a little odd to have to define attachments in the data model that you want populated in Team Server since you would never want to use them in the data model..