This section describes how to create a new data type.

You can use UDTT to create a new data type. For example, you can create an EmailAddress type to represent e-mail addresses. All data types, including the four predefined data types, are defined in the type.xml file. There are two methods by which you can create new UDTT data types:

In some cases, the new types are subset of predefined types. Developers can create new type by referring predefined type with validation or conversion parameters.

For example, e-mail address is a special String follows specific regular expression. Although Developers can define e-mail address as a String type data with regExp parameter in data definition, they have to define it each time when need a data holding e-mail address. It is convenient to define e-mail address as a new type once, and refer the type each time in data definition. This method of creating new type does not require developer to write any code, just need to define new type using Transaction Editor. For more information on extending predefined data types, refer to Extending a predefined type.

In some cases, the new data types are more complex. They may require new editing widget to represent the data or may require specific validation rule which can not be handled by predefined type validation parameters. You can create a new type with full control of validation or representation. For more information on how to create a new type, refer to Data type extension.