CollectionDef Object

A collection type (also referred to as a collection definition) defines how instances of a particular type of collection will behave. The properties of the collection type determine:

The minimum and maximum number of items in a collection.
Whether or not the collection type is an origin collection type.
Whether or not the collection type permits the naming of destination objects, and if so, whether those names are case-sensitive, and required to be unique.
Whether or not the collection type permits the explicit sequencing of items in the collection.
What happens to related objects when objects or relationships in the collection are deleted.
Whether or not origin collections of this type are automatically copied to new object versions by the CreateVersion method.
Whether the MergeVersion method combines origin collections of this type as a whole, or item-by-item.
Whether the FreezeVersion method requires that destination object versions of relationships of this type be frozen before the attendant origin object versions can be frozen.

The kind of relationship that a particular collection type uses to relate objects to each other is determined by its CollectionItem collection. The CollectionItem collection associates a single relationship type to the collection type.

To add a new collection type, use the InterfaceDef object.

A CollectionDef object is also a RepositoryObject. In addition to the members described here, CollectionDef objects also provide the members that are defined for repository objects.

When to Use

Use the CollectionDef object to retrieve or modify the properties of a collection type, to determine the kind of relationship that the collection implements, or to determine the interface to which the collection is attached.

Properties

Property	Description
DispatchID	The dispatch identifier to use when accessing an instance of this type of collection.
Flags	Flags that specify details about this collection definition.
IsOrigin	Indicates whether or not collections of this type are origin collections.
MaxCount	The maximum number of target objects that can be contained in a collection of this type.
MinCount	The minimum number of target objects that must be contained in a collection of this type.

Collections

Collection	Description
CollectionItem	The collection of one relationship type that defines the relationship between target objects of this type of collection and a single source object.
Interface	The interface to which this collection definition is attached.
Properties	The collection of all persistent properties that are attached to the CollectionDef object.