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This page is for application designers who need to configure the relationships between data. It explains the properties for entity relationship diagram (ERD).
Overview
PhixFlow ERDs define the logical structure of the data in your application; see Understanding ERDsEntity Relationship Diagrams.
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Tables
For complete details on tables and ERDs see Understanding ERDs Entity Relationship Diagrams. The following diagram illustrates how an ERD represents a table:
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| PhixFlow expects every table to have a special attribute called a primary key, which uniquely identifies each record. | ||||||||
(available in PhixFlow version 11.3+) | Secondary keys are optional keys that index records and do not have to be unique. When you create a relationship, one attribute in the relation must be either a Primary Key or a Secondary Key. | ||||||||
| A foreign key attribute is an attribute in the table that refers to the primary key in another table. When you create a relationship from a primary key to an attribute, PhixFlow automatically sets the attribute to be a foreign key. | ||||||||
| The display name is the attribute that will be displayed in place of the Primary Key. Typically a primary key is not user-friendly and you do not want to display it. Instead, you want to display something that makes more sense to a person. for example a Company Name rather than their ID. |
| Indexes are applied to attributes on a table and help improve the speed of data retrieval when handling large data sets. |
Basic Settings
Field | Description |
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Name | The name for the ERD. |
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Toolbars and Popup Menus
ERD Toolbar
The toolbar is at the top of the canvas. Hover your mouse pointer over the toolbar to see a tooltip.
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| To create a new table, drag the icon from the toolbar onto the canvas. To add an existing table, click to list the tables available in the repository. Drag a table from the list into the ERD canvas. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Create a new application screen using data from the selected table. In the Create Screen window:
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| Open the help topic with details about working with ERDs. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Options to arrange the selected components:
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| Open the properties tab for the ERD. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Zoom out to see more of the diagram, with smaller text. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Zoom in to see a smaller area of the diagram, with larger text. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Update the ERD to the last saved diagram layout. This clears any unsaved layout changes. |
Table Popup Menu
To access more options in a popup menu, in the table header, click
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Option | Description | ||||||||
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| Open the properties for this table to make changes. | ||||||||
| Remove the selected item(s) from the diagram. | ||||||||
| Tables may have relationships to other tables not represented on the current ERD. Use these options to add all related tables to your ERD so that you can see the full relationship set; see Show Relationships From Other ERDs see Adding Content to an ERD, above. | ||||||||
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| Delete the selected item(s) from the ERD and from everywhere it is used. | ||||||||
| Toggle the tables between expanded to show all attributes or collapsed to show only the table name, primary key and any foreign keys. This is useful if your table contains many attributes. | ||||||||
| Create a new application screen using data from the selected table. |
Attribute Popup Menu
This is accessed by right-clicking on an attribute.
Option | Description | ||||||||
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| Make: set the current attribute to be a primary key. A table can have only one primary key. Unset: unset this attribute so it is no longer the primary key for the table. | ||||||||
(available in PhixFlow version 11.3+) | Make: set the current attribute to be a secondary key. Unset: unset this attribute so it is no longer the secondary for the table. | ||||||||
| Make: set an attribute to be a foreign key. Unset: unset this attribute so it is no longer a foreign key. | ||||||||
| Make: set an attribute to be the display name for the primary key Unset: unset this attribute so it is no longer the display name for the primary key. | ||||||||
| Create a new attribute for the table. PhixFlow opens the properties where you can add a name and set the data type. | ||||||||
| Delete the attribute from the table. PhixFlow prompts you to confirm. |
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Learn More
- Understanding ERDs
- Adding Content to Entity Relationship Diagrams
- Editing Content in an ERD
- Types of Table and When to Use Them
- Table
- Attribute
For links to all pages in this topic, see see Entity Relationship Diagrams.
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