The yaml interface is a module in caosdb-pylib that can be used to create and update
CaosDB models using a simplified definition in YAML format.
Let's start with an example taken from https://gitlab.indiscale.com/caosdb/src/caosdb-advanced-user-tools/-/blob/dev/unittests/model.yml.
.. highlight:: yaml
Project:
obligatory_properties:
projectId:
datatype: INTEGER
description: 'UID of this project'
Person:
recommended_properties:
firstName:
datatype: TEXT
description: 'first name'
lastName:
datatype: TEXT
description: 'last name'
LabbookEntry:
recommended_properties:
Project:
entryId:
datatype: INTEGER
description: 'UID of this entry'
responsible:
datatype: Person
description: 'the person responsible for these notes'
textElement:
datatype: TEXT
description: 'a text element of a labbook recording'
associatedFile:
datatype: FILE
description: 'A file associated with this recording'
table:
datatype: FILE
description: 'A table document associated with this recording'
This example defines 3 RecordTypes:
- A Project with one obligatory property "datatype"
- A Person with a "firstName" and a "lastName" (as recommended properties)
- A LabbookEntry with multiple recommended properties of different data types
One major advantage of using this interface (in contrast to the standard python interface) is that properties can be defined and added to record types "on-the-fly". E.g. the three lines for "firstName" as sub entries of Person have two effects on CaosDB:
- A new property with name "firstName", datatype "TEXT" and description 'first name' is inserted (or updated, if already present) into CaosDB.
- The new property is added as a recommended property to record type Person.
Any furhter occurrences of "firstName" in the yaml file will reuse the definition provided for Person.
Note the difference between the three property declarations of LabbookEntry:
- "Project": This record type is added directly as a property of LabbookEntry. Therefore it does not specify any further attributes. Compare to the original declaration of record type "Project".
- "responsible": This defines and adds a property with name "responsible" to LabbookEntry which has a datatype "Person. Person is defined above.
- "firstName": This defines and adds a property with the standard data type "TEXT" to record type Person.
Datatypes
---------
You can use any data type understood by CaosDB as datatype attribute in the yaml model.
List attributes are a bit special:
.. highlight::yaml
datatype: LIST(DOUBLE)
would declare a list datatype of DOUBLE elements.
.. highlight::yaml
datatype: LIST(Project)
would declare a list of elements with datatype Project.
Keywords
--------
- parent: Parent of this entity.
- importance: Importance of this entity.
- datatype: The datatpye of this property, e.g. TEXT, INTEGER or Project.
- unit: The unit of the property, e.g. "m/s".
- description: A description for this entity.
- recommended_properties: Add properties to this entity with importance "recommended".
- obligatory_properties: Add properties to this entity with importance "obligatory".
- suggested_properties: Add properties to this entity with importance "suggested".
- inherit_from_recommended: Inherit from another entity using the specified importance level including the higher importance level "obligatory". This would add a corresponding parent and add all obligatory and recommended properties from the parent.
- inherit_from_suggested including higher importance levels: Inherit from another entity using the specified importance level. This would add a corresponding parent and add all obligatory, recommended and suggested properties from the parent.
- inherit_from_obligatory: Inherit from another entity using the specified importance level. This would add a corresponding parent and add all obligatory properties from the parent.