How to Define an ERD

Open an Existing ERD

1. From the home menu, select Data and click on an ERD in the list.
2. In the repository, open your application and find Data → ERD.
   • either right-click on an ERD name and select Display.
   • or double-click the ERD name to open the properties. In the properties toolbar, click the

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      icon.

Create a New ERD

1. From the home menu, select Data.
2. PhixFlow displays the list of ERDs. Select Create New from the left hand side.

3. In the pop-up, enter a name for your ERD, and a description then click 

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   .

   Tip
   When you are creating tables, choose a name that reflects the entity your table represents.

   
   

4. PhixFlow opens a new ERD canvas on the left with a toolbar at the top. Hover your mouse pointer over toolbar icons to display a tooltip.

Create a Table From an Excel File

todo?? Flow 4.10

Add an Existing Table

1. In the toolbar, click Table ListWaiting for qualified icon??
2. PhixFlow filters the repository to show the list of tables available in this application.
3. Drag a table from the repository onto the ERD canvas. 

Create a New Table

1. Drag Table Create from the toolbar into the diagram. Waiting for qualified icon??
2. In the pop-up, enter a name, for example "Customer" and click

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   .
3. PhixFlow adds the table to the canvas and opens its properties tab on the right. The header displays the name entered in step 2. PhixFlow automatically adds 2 attributes:

1. • UID - the unique identifier and primary key.
   • Name -  Figure out how to explain what the name attribute is for and how it's needed for the display name???
2. To add attributes to the table:
   1. In the table, click 

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      . PhixFlow opens the attribute properties on the right.
   2. In the properties, enter the Name, Type and Length for the data; see Attributes.
      PhixFlow creates attributes with a Type or String and Length of 50 characters. Remember to select appropriate type properties for an attributes data, such as Date or Integer.

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       the attribute properties.
3. PhixFlow adds the attribute to the table in the ERD.

Create Relationships

In an ERD you can create a one-to-many relationship between a primary key in one table with an attribute in another table. For relationship concepts, see Understanding ERDs.

To create a relationship, click-drag from one attribute to another.

To open the relationship properties, in the ERD click the relationship arrow.

Primary key and foreign key attributes must have the same data Type. See the See the table below for the relationships that can be created between attributes and how PhixFlow manages conflicts in data type.

PhixFlow cannot create a relationship between your selected attributes if your selected foreign key attribute: 

• is already a foreign key to a different primary key.
• has a different Data Type and type properties to the primary key.

In these cases, PhixFlow reports an error.  You can:

• create a new attribute to be the foreign key
• change the foreign key attributes to match the primary key, provided there is no data in the table
• create the relationship with a different attribute.

To change the data type properties, In the ERD, click on an attribute to open its properties.

Saving ERDs

Changes to tables, attributes and relationships are automatically saved to the ERD. However, you must click 

Properties

Basic Settings

ERD Toolbar

The toolbar is at the top of the canvas. Hover your mouse pointer over the toolbar to see a tooltip.

Table Pop-up Menu

You can access more options in a pop-up menu:

• in the table header, click 

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• right-click anywhere in the table.