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This topic is for application designers who need to define data tables, attributes, properties and relationships.

Overview

The purpose of an application is to display data to users and to enable them to make changes to the data. 

  •  screen displays data in grids and charts → view
  • user adds, removes or changes the data - form fields, buttons which are wired to actionflows

How you set this up

  • Load existing Data: 
    • Quick load from excel
    • Use analysis model to connect to databases or other external data
    • Define data structure: Use ERDs 
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    Overview

    PhixFlow Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) define the logical structure of the data

    that

    in your application

    using tables and relationships.  Understanding ERDs and Defining Data Structures using ERDs
  • Compile views: Decide what your application users need to see. Set up views for these
  • Connecting data to screens: Design s

    • Action types and table types - calclulate etc.

    Transactional

    • changing individual or small numbers of records - transactional changes.
    • You can also bulk change. Use an analysis model for complex processing of large number of data records.
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    You can:

    • either define an ERD before adding any data to PhixFlow. In this case you create the tables, attributes and relationships
    • or you can load data from external sources first. You can then drag tables into the ERD and simply add the relationships.

    Getting Data in

    • loading data page to do??: New concept page
      • Enter data yourself
      • Load excel files
      • Use an analysis model
      • generate test data
        • API to import from a tool
        • using input multipliers

    Seeing Data

    If you are working with tables that have records, to see them:

  • Click on a table in the ERD to open its properties.
    • In the properties toolbar, click  Insert excerpt_more_options_more_optionsnopaneltrue.
  • Select View Chart (this should be default view!??).
  • PhixFlow displays a grid showing all the data records.
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    . "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:

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    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
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       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 
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         icon         onto the canvas.
      • To add an existing table, on the toolbar, click 
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        . 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 data and uses it to create a new table.
    4. 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.

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    Creating an ERD

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

    Opening an ERD

    1. On your application's home page, click the 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 API, use an analysis model to import it. This allows you to configure connectors to access your existing data 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.