public function getEavUserDefinedAttributes()
    {

        // initialize the array with the user defined EAV attributes
        $eavUserDefinedAttributes = array();

        // query whether or not user defined EAV attributes for the actualy entity type are available
        if (isset($this->userDefinedAttributes[$entityTypeCode = $this->getEntityTypeCode()])) {
            $eavUserDefinedAttributes = $this->userDefinedAttributes[$entityTypeCode];
        }

        // return the array with the user defined EAV attributes
        return $eavUserDefinedAttributes;
    }