Type deprecation

State is a property of the Common Type, Property Definition, and Relationship Definition classes that defines whether they are Active or Deprecated. By implication, if a type is deprecated, then so too are all of its properties and relationships.

Active state

By default, a Common Type is in the Active state. This means the type is in normal use. It is modifiable subject to normal validation constraints and can be freely used as a target type for a relationship or as the base type for another type.

Deprecated state

Deprecated types are types that for business reasons are deemed obsolete but remain defined in the system for backward compatibility. A deprecated type may not be used in any of the following ways:

• As a Base Type for an active type

• As a Target Type for a relationship definition

• As a TypeID for a property definition

Deprecating a type with derived types and other references

In order to mark a type as deprecated, you need to first ensure that any type referencing it is also marked as deprecated. Then, starting from the leaf level of the inheritance tree, deprecate the most derived types, and work backwards from there towards the least derived.