OsidEnabler is used to manage the effectiveness, enabledness, or operation of an OsidObejct. The OsidEnabler itself is active or inactive When an OsidEnabler is active, any OsidObject mapped to it is "on." When all OsidEnablers mapped to an OsidObject are inactive, then the OsidObject is "off."

The managed OsidObject may have varying semantics as to what its on/off status means and in particular, which methods are used to indicate the effect of an OsidEnabler. Some axamples:

• Operables: OsidEnablers effect the operational status.
• Temporals: OsidEnablers may be used to extend or shorten the effectiveness of a Temporal such as an OsidRelationship.

In the case where an OsidEnabler may cause a discontinuity in a Temporal, the OsidEnabler may cause the creation of new Temporals to capture the gap in effectiveness.

For example, An OsidRelationship that began in 2007 may be brought to an end in 2008 due to the absence of any active OsidEnablers. When an effective OsidEnabler appears in 2009, a new OsidRelationship is created with a starting effective date of 2009 leaving the existing OsidRelationship with effective dates from 2007 to 2008.

An OsidEnabler itself is both a Temporal and an OsidRule whose activity status of the object may be controlled administratively, using a span of effective dates, through an external rule, or all three. The OsidEnabler defines a set of canned rules based on dates, events, and cyclic events.