Property:Has Element type

This property has type string, and is meant to record the type of an Element. Thus, we can categorize Elements, and in turn find out interesting things, e.g. which Building Block Variants impose requirements on the hardware in use, which different protocols a Building Block Variant contains, et cetera.

An Element must have one, and only one type (this property should be added exactly one time to an Element article).

The property can contain the following values:

• location - an Element type of location prescribes something about where a facility must be implemented, or a physical trait of the location, e.g. physical security
• hardware - using a "hardware" type Element means the facility must be implemented with/on the prescribed hardware.
• software - using a "software" type Element means the implemented facility must include the prescribed software. Note that it's possible that the software prescribed provides more functionality than the Building Block Variant itself provides (e.g. Microsoft SharePoint). If this is the case, the software should be prescribed using Element type "standard" - see below.
• operating system - an operating system is of course a special case of type "software"
• protocol - examples of a protocol would be SNMP v3, IEEE1394 et cetera.
• standard - "standard" is a general type which is used to classify various standards (excluding protocols, which have their own Element type - see above). Examples are:
  • naming standards for DNS names
  • preferential or mandatory software to implement a certain function - as an example: a Variant of Building Block Type "Authentication" could have an Element prescribing the use of IBM Tivoli Directory Server. This will preclude the use of any other Directory Server (e.g. OpenLDAP or Microsoft Active Directory) in any implementation of a facility using this particular Building Block Variant.
• note - an Element typed as "note" contains a general remark, indication of usage, comment, concern, or other message that an architect might want to convey to the designer.
• other - if an Element cannot be typed with any of the preceding types, then it will be typed "other".

Note that if many similar Elements are typed "other", it may be worth adding a new type here, and retyping those Elements.