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Semantic types are field-level annotations that determine the type of data that can be stored in temp-table fields. You can specify default/ basic semantic types (such as Text—for CHARACTER, and Boolean—for LOGICAL) and also user-defined semantic types for your temp-table fields.

Suppose you want to ensure that a user, who has to add or update customer records to the Customer table, enters a properly formatted email ID. Then, you must define the semantic type, Email, while creating a Data Object interface using the Define Service Interface wizard. A published Data Object service that has the Email semantic type defined will reject any improperly formatted email IDs. This way you have more control over how data is entered into certain types of fields.

The following table lists each semantic type with its description:

Semantic type

Description

Text

Specify this if the user must enter a single text line.

RichText

Specify this if the user can enter multi-line, formatted text.

Integer

Specify this if the user must enter an integer value.

Number

Specify this if the user must enter a property formatted decimal value.

Boolean

Specify this if the user must enter a Boolean value.

Date

Specify this if the user must enter date.

Datetime

Specify this if the user must enter date with time. This semantic type supports timezone specification.

Currency

Specify this if the user must enter a decimal value with a currency symbol.

Percent

Specify this if you want the value that the user enters to be stored in the database as a fraction (1/100th). If the user enters 10%, the value will be stored in the database as .01.

PercentValue

Specify this if you want the value entered by the user to be stored in the database as it is. If the user enters 10%, the value will be stored in the database as 10.

Email

Specify this if the user must enter text with a single @ character delimiter.

PhoneNumber

Specify this if the user must enter a phone number. This accepts numbers, parentheses, and dashes.

URL

Specify this if the user must enter a URL.

Password

Specify this if what the user enters must be displayed as hidden characters.

Internal

Specify this if a particular field must not be displayed to the user.

Note: If you define the Integer, Number, Currency, Percent, or PercentValue semantic type, you will have to further specify minimum and maximum values for the semantic type.