Permit Feature Program Components (Feature Components)

Owned by Elijah Edwards (Unlicensed), created
Last updated: Mar 12, 2024 by Megan Sproul
4 min read

Overview

Permit feature program components (feature components) allow for storing any type of information about a permit feature. For example, a permit feature representing a storage tank might need to store information about the tank manufacturer, installation date, and capacity. Another common example would be a wastewater outfall permit feature where information about the volume and types of wastewater carried by the outfall are tracked.

Simply put, a feature component is a regular program component form that has been configured in such a way that a repeating section tracks information for each permit feature. Regular component forms can have a repeating section for feature information, but feature components go one step further by linking specific component form sections with permit features, which can help keep the information in sync. nVIRO automatically connects the information between the permit features on the permit and the repeating section in the program component.

For information on designing and configuring feature components, see the configuring feature components page.

Relationship between Feature Component Data and Permit Features / Site Features

The diagram below shows the relationship between data in a feature component (shown in the orange boxes on the right) with permit and site data.

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Relationship of Feature Data between Sites, Permits and Feature Components

In the diagram above, the following example data is shown:

  1. Site Acme Petroleum has two tanks. The tanks are added to the Site Plan. The tanks may have been added directly to the site plan, or they may have been created by a submission, such as an application for a new underground storage tank (UST) permit that has been properly configured to create the features upon submission.

  2. The agency creates a draft UST-123 permit, represented in the middle of the diagram. The permit includes a reference to the two tanks in the form of permit features.

  3. The agency wishes to track details about each tank, such as the tank installation date and tank capacity. To track this information, a UST Tank Details feature component is added. The feature component contains a repeating section referencing each permit feature.

nVIRO can be configured to automatically create the feature component when the draft permit is created. Information in the component can be inherited directly from a UST application form, for example. Information in the feature component is then available to merge into document templates, perform reporting, or serve as a data inheritance for future submissions such as permit modification and renewal forms.

Permit Feature Links

When viewing the permit features list on a permit, if a feature is linked to a feature component form, a list of component sections where the feature is referenced is displayed beneath the feature.

In the example shown below, two permit features are shown, 001 and 002. The row beneath each storage tank lists the component form and section to which the permit feature is linked. The form name is UST Permit Information and the section name is Tank Details.

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Viewing Permit Features with Linked Feature Component Data

The following options are available from the … menu on the component link row:

  • Edit Component - opens the program component in edit mode and navigates to the section representing the selected permit feature.

  • View Component - opens the program component in read-only mode and navigates to the section representing the selected permit feature.

  • Delete Component - Removes the component form section that references the permit feature.

The image below shows an example of a repeating section in a feature component that is linked to the features shown in the previous image.

Additional Feature Component Considerations

There are some special behaviors that are useful to know about when working with feature components.

  • The linkage between a feature component section and a permit feature is based on the Feature Identifier. The feature identifier is the unique ID assigned to each feature (e.g. TANK-1, 001, etc.). Data integrity for the linkage is not enforced. This means changing a Feature Identifier in a component form will result in that section losing its relationship back to its related permit feature.

  • If a feature identifier for a feature is updated in the site plan, nVIRO will automatically update the feature identifier on both the Permit Feature and the Feature Component.

  • If a permit feature is added to a permit, a feature component section is not automatically added to the permit feature. The component section will need to be added manually.

  • If a new section is added to a feature component for a new feature, nVIRO does not enforce a valid linkage back to a permit feature. This can result in an “orphan” component section if the Feature Identifier does not exactly match with an existing feature identifier on a permit feature.