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Core Concepts

Core Concepts​

API Data Model​

The i3X API is built around four primary concepts:

Namespaces​

Namespaces provide organizational groupings for types and objects. Each namespace has:

  • uri: A unique namespace URI identifier
  • displayName: A human-readable name

ObjectTypes​

ObjectTypes define the schema for objects. They are based on OPC UA Information Models and include:

  • elementId: Unique type identifier
  • displayName: Human-readable name
  • namespaceUri: The namespace this type belongs to
  • schema: JSON Schema definition describing the type's structure

Objects​

Objects are instances of ObjectTypes representing actual manufacturing equipment, data points, or other elements:

  • elementId: Unique object identifier
  • displayName: Human-readable name
  • typeId: The ObjectType this object is an instance of
  • parentId: Parent object in the hierarchy (null for root objects)
  • isComposition: Whether this object has child objects
  • namespaceUri: The namespace this object belongs to
  • relationships: References to related objects

RelationshipTypes​

RelationshipTypes define how objects can be connected to each other:

  • elementId: Unique relationship type identifier
  • displayName: Human-readable name
  • reverseOf: The name of the inverse relationship

Contextualized Data​

The API provides access to data that has been:

  • Properly structured according to information models
  • Tagged with appropriate metadata
  • Organized within hierarchical relationships
  • (Optionally) related with graph relationships
  • Timestamped and quality-assured