Learn about attribute to property and alias conversion

PI AF attributes are represented either as properties or as aliases in PI MDB. In general, an attribute with a PI point as the data reference is represented as an alias and all other attributes are represented as properties.

Note: Attributes with data references that are not PI points (for example, a data reference to a formula) are represented as properties of string type with a string value stating that the data reference is not supported by PI MDB.

With nested attributes, an attribute with a data reference to a PI point might be represented as a property, rather than a alias. This is because aliases are not hierarchical, meaning they cannot be nested as children of another alias. Properties can be nested, however.

• If you nest attributes below an alias attribute, then the child attributes are not visible to PI MDB clients.

• If you nest property attributes below other property attributes, then that hierarchy is carried over to the property hierarchy in PI MDB.

• If you nest alias attributes below property attributes, then those alias attributes are represented as PI properties of string type. The string value is a message that says that the data reference is not supported by PI MDB at this level.