004 - DfV-Prefetch vs explicit Attributes

Status: Accepted Date: 2026-07-30

Context

The API needs to support DfV (german: Definition für Verfahren), which are variable attributes that may be available on resources and can differ between object instances.

The API could support that in two different ways:

• DfV-Prefetch: when getting or searching for a resource all available DfV attributes are returned automatically
  • This could be done by keeping a list of all globally available DfV and always loading them (only available attributes are returned from the Fabasoft API)
• Explicit attributes: each request defines all attributes which should be returned and only that are loaded

Decision

Prefetch DfV attributes by default, but also provide an attribute argument that disables prefetching and loads only the explicitly requested attributes.

Consequences

• Clients receive available DfV attributes by default.
• Clients can reduce the response and loading effort by explicitly selecting attributes.
• The default behavior may load more attributes than a specific client needs.
• Caching details for DfV-Prefetch remains open until a separate decision is made.