Populating the CZ schema with data from Oracle Bills of Material creates one or more BOM Models in Configurator Developer. You can open a BOM Model in Configurator Developer and extend it by creating additional structure. You may want to do this if you:

• Want to present guided buying or selling questions to your Oracle Configurator end users
• Need objects to support Totals, Resources, and rules

A Model's structure appears in a table that, when expanded, shows where parent and child relationships exist between product elements. For example, a Component may be a child of a Model, while Options are children of a Feature.
You can create Model nodes from scratch or create them using Items in the CZ schema's Item Master. You do this either by selecting "Item-based Nodes" in the Create Nodes page, or by defining and running a Populator.

Note: To view a summary of your Model's structure, rules, and Item Master, generate a Model Report.

Features

A Feature can either be selected or accept input (depending on its type) at runtime when configuring a Component. Features can have either a value or enumerated Options. For example, an end user might be able to enter a value between 5 and 20 for an Integer Feature called Length, while an Option Feature called Color might contain Options called Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow.
You can create the following types of Features in Configurator Developer:

• Option Features
• Integer Features
• Decimal Features
• Boolean Features
• Text Features

Connectors
In a runtime Oracle Configurator a Connector enables an end user to define connections between component instances. You can create a Connector node under either a Model or a Component node, but the Connector's target must be a Model. A Model can have one or more Connectors.

Initial Values
Use this setting to specify a node's value when the configuration session begins (that is, before any quantities are contributed or consumed, and before any rules propagate). By default, the Initial Value for Totals, Resources, and Numeric Features is blank (null) in Configurator Developer. If you do not enter an Initial Value for a Total or a Resource, the initial value is a 0 (zero) at runtime. If you do not enter an Initial Value for a Numeric Feature (that is, an Integer or Decimal Feature), the Feature has no initial value at runtime.

When the initial value of a Total or Count Feature is zero, configuration rules that involve these nodes do not propagate.
For Boolean Features, the initial value is essentially a default, which like all defaults can be overridden by the end user. Therefore, the end user can select a Boolean Feature that is initially Logic False and it will appear as User True in the runtime UI.  The Initial Value of a Text Feature is any default text that you enter. The end user can overwrite this text at any time.