Stereotype indicates special behavior of a class. It indicates how an object or class fits into the AB Suite processing framework. The stereotype determines the class’s behavior. It can define a number of built-in or framework methods, which are automatically executed at runtime. A stereotyped class or object inherits a set of built-in attributes and methods.

The following stereotypes are available in AB Suite:

For more information about each of the stereotypes, refer to Classes.

The stereotype that you apply to a class determines the properties that is displayed for the class. For example, a class with the Ispec or Event stereotype contains an AutomaticEntryCapable property while a class with the Report stereotype includes a DefaultDevice property.

Segment

Applications and application components are modeled using the segment stereotype. A segment is used at the top level in the model to contain all the elements that make up each application. A class with the Segment stereotype automatically includes the behavior and characteristics of a segment. For example, the built-in attributes and methods inherited by a segment class includes; an attribute called GLB and a built-in method called Startup().

Ispecs

Ispecs (interface specifications) are one of the basic stereotyped classes that make up a System Modeler model. An ispec is a definition of a business resource, such as a customer or product, and defines the user interface and methods for your user application. The graphical user interface formats, the data, and the logic defined for ispecs enable Builder to generate the runtime database structure and a major part of the runtime system. Ispec classes can contain methods. Presentation ispecs contain built-in framework methods (Construct, Prepare, and Main) that are automatically invoked during Ispec processing.

An ispec class can have a graphical user interface, or presentation. To create a presentation, set the PresentationType property to a value other than None. Once this is set, you can access the Painter window to design the appearance and layout of the interface.

Insertable, copyispec, copyevent, and SQL script are more specialized stereotypes. All the elements within System Modeler, with the exception of the model itself, belong to another element that owns them. For example, a segment is owned by the model, an Ispec is owned by the segment in which it is contained. Elements are identified within their owner by name, and for this reason, their owner is called a namespace.