The Graph Expansion API was redesigned in Data Access Layer (DAL) for SmartPlant Foundation 2018 (7.0). This provides a more flexible way to query and expand the results graphically from data stored in the SmartPlant Foundation database.
You can use the Graph Expansion API to build up a graph expansion query to return data in three ways:
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Full query expansion - The data is returned in a StructuredObjectCollection, which contains IObject results.
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Partial query expansion - The data is returned in a LightReportingObjectCollection, which contains specific column sets of object results.
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Count query expansion - The data is returned in a simple count of the objects at each graph node.
In each graph expansion type, a graph expansion request can be configured so that:
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A graph expansion instance is created from a given graph UID.
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Starting objects for the expansion can be optionally supplied.
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Criteria for each graph node can be optionally applied.
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The results properties for each graph node can be optionally configured for a partial query expansion only.
The following sections describe how you can build up graph expansion queries using the Graph Expansion API and includes some examples of key concepts.