Current constraints

Aspect on Demand is currently operating with the restraints listed below.

Conceptual constraints

These constraints are related to features that require a new design concept before they can be developed.

  • Azure only – the current solution is designed to work on Microsoft Azure only. Other cloud providers (e.g., AWS, GCP) are not supported at this time.

  • Databricks only – currently only a single Databricks SQL Warehouse per customer / tenant is supported. There is no support for PostgreSQL.

  • Multi-table relation for an aspect – there is no concept for supporting multi-table relations within a single aspect yet.

Limitations

Limitations cannot be worked around if not stated otherwise. They will be implemented in future releases.

  • Collection properties in Aspect – Aspect collection properties are currently not supported. Users should ignore these properties in their custom mappings.
    Example: For aspects like ProductType or ProductInstance, the property isAssembledFrom (a collection) should be skipped.

  • Inheritance in Aspect Model – Aspect inheritance is not supported. Attempting to use inherited structures in Aspect Models will lead to mapping errors.

  • Data types – the samm-c:MultiLanguageText, LocalDateTime, and UUID data types are not supported.

  • Aspect Model Name (from Aspect Model Catalog) – the name of an Aspect Model (as specified in the Aspect Model URN) must be 13 characters or fewer. Longer names will cause validation errors.

  • Optional Aspect properties – Optional properties in aspects are not yet supported. This can cause mapping errors, such as "Optional<Entity> does not have an accessible constructor". All properties must currently be not optional.

  • Registered external clients – the current solution supports only external clients who have completed the registration process.

  • Support for one aspect with a major version for each client – each client can only have one aspect per major version.
    Example: If aspects v1.0.0 and v1.3.0 exist, only one function with major version v1 is supported.

  • Pagination – currently, the user interface displays all available aspects on a single page, without pagination.
    Example: If there are 30 aspects, the UI will render all 30 entries on one screen instead of splitting them across multiple pages.

Usability constraints

These constraints are related to features that work but are not intuitive or require manual steps/documentation.

  • Databricks SQL cannot be used directly – the current solution cannot directly consume schemas exported from Databricks SQL. Users need to adjust the schema manually before use.
    Required adjustments:

    • Remove the schema name prefix (refined).

    • Append _view to the table name.

    • Replace data type STRING with TEXT.
      Example:
      Input: refined.product (STRING) → Output: product_view (TEXT)

  • Aspect Models cannot be selected from dropdown – users must manually enter the Aspect Model URN. There is currently no list of available Aspect Models in a drop-down selection.