Meta-model

The dictionary or resource database containing the application database schema and other application resources is an ordinary ODABA database based on a kind of meta-model. The meta-model describing the resource database covers following areas:

• data model - containing type definitions for defining data types
• documentation model - containing type definitions for documentation objects
• administration model - containing basic administration type definitions (user, rights etc.)
• functional model - containing type definitions for implementation classes, options and external resources.

ODABA is, conceptually, terminology-oriented, i.e. is supports terminology based data modeling (Terminus) and allows creating database models from defined terminology models. In order to provide proper documentation, all development resources are linked with a documentation topic, which is typically maintained while developing an application.

An extension is provided with the GUI framework, which requires a design model, which contains definitions for design classes in order to define GUI design resources (controls and forms).