ReferenceCopy handler creates a Search command button next to the attribute data field for locating and retrieving data from the referred data card to the referrer data card. An attribute with the ReferenceCopy handler is different from a general reference attribute in the way that the referring attribute retrieves values for other attributes on the data card but does not need a value itself. Again, once the values are copied to the referrer data card, changes in the values do not affect the referred data card.

With metadata, you can specify attributes, whose values you want to retrieve to the parent data card. In order to succeed in retrieving the values, each attribute in both templates must have an individual attribute code that you denote in the metadata. For example, to retrieve user information from existing User data cards to Car data cards, create a reference attribute in the Car data card and attach the ReferenceCopy handler to it. Then, in the metadata of the reference attribute, specify the correlating attributes so that in the metadata Name fields, enter the source attribute codes, and in the corresponding metadata Value fields, enter the corresponding target attribute codes. Hereby, values from attributes on User data card are retrievable to the attributes on the Car data card. The following picture provides an example of metadata definition.

Metadata for an attribute with ReferenceCopy handler:

On the data card, a Search button appears next to the reference attributes field. Clicking it opens a Search window for searching and copying existing data to the data card under a creation as illustrated in the following picture.

A User attribute with ReferenceCopy:

In the data card under a creation the reference attribute User (with ReferenceCopy) that includes the ReferenceCopy handler is visible. However, in the saved data card, only the attributes with retrieved values are visible but the parent attribute is hidden as illustrated in the following picture.

A ReferenceCopy output:

To be able to save the data card with retrieved values, the data type of the target and source attributes must be identical. For example, if you want to copy a date, the data type of both, source and target attribute, must be either date or date and time. Matrix42 validates the data type when saving a created data card and fails in saving if the data types do not match.

Also, in order to retrieve values from the source attributes to the target attributes, users utilizing the template must have at least read permission to the referred template. If the parent attribute does not refer to any template OR the user does not have permission to the referred template, the parent attribute field is hidden and the handler does not work.

Normally, the existing values of the data card will be replaced by the values of source data card. Check metadata configuration information for instructions how you can make the existing values to be preserved. If the reference copy attribute (this attribute) is multi value, and you want to store the links to original data cards by using :SOURCE: configuration, use plus-sign mechanism too. Again, check metadata configuration information for instructions.

If the parent attribute is fixed for more than one template, the templates may not have identical codes for attributes you want to copy. In this case, you can define the codes of referred templates by starting a metadata name with template_code:attribute_code . These template-related copying rules are applied first, after the common (not template related) rules appleied.

Fill a ReferenceCopy attribute with AI classification

An AI workflow node that runs a classification Action can fill a reference attribute that uses the ReferenceCopy handler. The Action selects the data card to refer to from the data cards that the attribute can refer to, and the attribute is set to that data card. Values are copied to the referrer data card only when the attribute metadata reference_copy_trigger_on_save is set to true, as described in Table 3.

When the metadata is set to true, values are copied whenever the reference value changes during a save. This applies to saves made by a workflow and to saves made by users on the data card. Without this metadata, the reference is set but no values are copied.

A classification Action started from a data card shows the suggested record only. It does not fill the attribute.

Setting names and availability can change between versions.

Classification has these limits for a reference attribute:

• The attribute must refer to at least one template. It cannot refer to all templates.
• The attribute can refer to up to 3 templates by default. The platform setting ai.classification.maxTemplates changes this limit.
• The Action includes up to 100 options in the classification by default. The platform setting ai.classification.maxOptions changes this limit. If the number of options is higher than the limit, the classification fails with the error "Too many options for classification."

The following tables provide information on the attribute settings and metadata requirements for ReferenceCopy handler. Compulsory metadata is provided in a Required attribute metadata table including proposals for possible metadata values.

Table 1. Attribute Settings

Table 2. Required Attribute Metadata

Table 3. Optional Attribute Metadata