2.2) Item Descriptor

An item descriptor implements the atg.repository.RepositoryItemDescriptor interface and can subclass atg.repository.ItemDescriptorImpl. An item descriptor provides the following information:
   

•     The item type’s name
•     Item type properties
•     The class of the Java object used to represent the item type—for example, Integer or String

for example, an item descriptor might correspond to a single database table, or encompass multiple tables.Item descriptors are defined in an XML repository definition file. A repository can support multiple item descriptors.

An item property can store as its value:

•     A list of multiple values as a Set, List, Map, or array.
•     Another repository item or collection of repository items.

For example, a repository might have item descriptors Person and Address. The Person item descriptor might have an addresses property that exposes a list of addresses. This property might be of type RepositoryItem[], and the repository items in that array use the Address item descriptor. This allows repositories to represent one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many relationships.