Modeling Roles

• Role types
  • Parent type
  • RoleOf element usage
• RoleOf elements
  • Reuse
  • Name
  • Type
  • Substitution Group
• References

Create a role type for a non-exclusive function of an object only if there are role-specific properties to add. Otherwise, simply reuse an existing type, like nc:PersonType or nc:ItemType.

Role types

Parent type

A role type should extend “structures:ObjectType”.

RoleOf element usage

A role type will contain references to one or more RoleOf elements. It is not required, but NIEM customarily adds role-of elements first to a role type, and then the remaining properties.

RoleOf elements

Reuse

NIEM already defines several role-of properties, including…

Reuse an existing role-of property when creating a custom role type if it meets your requirements; otherwise, you may define your own.

Name

The name of a role-of property must begin with “RoleOf”.

Type

The type of a role-of property should be the type that represents the object of the role.

If the role is a function of a person, the type of the role-of element should be “nc:PersonType”.

Substitution Group

A role-of element must be substitutable for element “nc:RoleOfAbstract”.

References

• NDR Section 10.2.2 - Role types and roles