Versions Compared

Key

  • This line was added.
  • This line was removed.
  • Formatting was changed.
Insert excerpt
_Banners
_Banners
nameERD
nopaneltrue

ERD Fundamentals

Iframe
srchttps://youtube.com/embed/f5EqRp50y8Y?&rel=0&ytp-pause-overlay=0
width650px
height400px

Image Added

Overview

PhixFlow Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) define the logical structure of the data in your application. "Entities" represent the things in the world that you want to represent as data.

The ERD Window Layout

Here is a simplified view of the ERD window:

Image RemovedImage Added


  1. The toolbar provides ERD specific options, such as displaying the available data tables that you can add to your ERD and creating a new screen for your data. 
  2. On the toolbar, click
    Insert excerpt
    _tables
    _tables
    nopaneltrue
     to list all available tables in the r
    epository pane on the right. 
  3. The main part of the window is the canvas, where you create the ERD.
    • To add a new table, from the toolbar, drag the 
      Insert excerpt
      _tables
      _tables
      nopaneltrue
       icon
       onto the canvas.
    • To add an existing table, on the toolbar, click 
      Insert excerpt
      _tables
      _tables
      nopaneltrue
      . PhixFlow lists the available tables in the repository. Drag
       a table from the repository onto the canvas.
    • To add an Excel or CSV spreadsheet, drag it directly onto the canvas. PhixFlow imports the spreadsheet data and uses it to create a new table.
  4. The canvas shows the tables and the relationships between them.
    • A table is represented as a box, containing a list of all of the attributes it contains and their associated data type.
    • A line connecting tables represents the relationship between them. The line connects the primary key of one table to a foreign key in a different table; see Relationship.

ERD Example

The following example shows an ERD for a school. Here the school has entities: departments, teachers, students, classrooms and so on. All these entities are represented as tables and the lines connecting them show their relationships to one another. We can see from this diagram that a School Department has many Class Rooms and Teachers. This example is covered in detail in Understanding ERDs.

Creating an ERD

  1. On your application's home page, click the ERD Data link to list the existing ERDs. Alternatively you can click the data link from the header bar. 
  2. Click the 
    Insert excerpt
    _add
    _add
    nopaneltrue
    button to create a new ERD.

Opening an ERD

  1.  On On your application's home page, click the ERD Data link to list the existing ERDs. Alternatively you can click the data link from the header bar. 
  2. Double-click any ERD to open it.

Already Have Data?

If you have data to import into PhixFlow, such as a database or CSV fileAPI, use an analysis model to import it. Configure This allows you to configure connectors to access your existing data sources and store the data as tables in PhixFlow's own database. see Importing Data and Importing Data Through an API.

You can also use an analysis model to set up bulk processes to manipulate large volumes of data before it is presented to your users; see Analysis Models for Batch Processing Data.

What's Next?

Understanding ERDs covers ERDs in more depth to help you design your own ERDs and views to display your data.