propertiesor

Propertiesor is a term used in data modeling and software design to describe a property-centric approach to representing the attributes of entities. In this approach, properties are treated as first-class objects that can be defined, composed, and validated independently of any single behavioral class. The idea is to decouple the description of an entity’s characteristics from its behavior, allowing properties to be added, changed, or inherited at runtime or during schema evolution.

Origin and usage: The term appears in theoretical discussions and some domain-specific literature as a descriptive label rather than a formal standard. It is not tied to a single technology, but rather a pattern that can be implemented in various data models, including object, document, and graph representations.

Core concepts: A property registry maps property identifiers to metadata such as type, constraints, default values. Each entity instance stores a property bag or snapshot, which is a map from property identifiers to values. Validation, serialization, and query mechanisms operate on the property schema and the property bag. Inheritance or composition can be achieved by merging property sets from parent templates or through property-level mixins.

Advantages and concerns: The approach offers flexibility for evolving schemas, dynamic feature toggling, and fine-grained validation. However, it can introduce runtime complexity, weaker type safety, and potential performance overhead in property lookups and validation.

See also: Metamodel, Property-based design, Dynamic typing, Schema evolution.