This page is for application designers who want define the data that will back the application. It explains how to draw an ERD and setup its properties.

Overview

??Remember Script

Use an ERD to define the structure of the data that backs your application. For an introduction to ERD concepts and why ERDs are important, see Understanding ERDs.

Starting Points

You do not have any data for your application or it has not been loaded yet:
1. create tables, attributes and relationships
2. Add records How>>
3. Loading data into tables created in an erd
You have already loaded data:
1. Add existing tables
2. set UID and display name
3. add relationships

As you draw the diagram, PhixFlow creates tables, attribute items in the repository. You can find:

tables in the repository Data → Tables category.
attributes listed in the table's properties.

PhixFlow sets the properties for a relationship item automatically. Relationships are not listed in the repository. To see relationship properties, in the ERD, click the relationship arrow.

Sections on this page

Create a New ERD

From the home menu, select Data.
PhixFlow displays the list of ERDs. Select Create New from the left hand side.
In the pop-up, enter a name for your ERD, and a description then click confirm ??icon.
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.

Open an Existing ERD

From the home menu, select Data and click on an ERD in the list.
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 ERD icon.

When you make any changes to the ERD, remember to Apply them. PhixFlow autosaves any new tables, attributes and relationships check??

Create a New Table

Drag the
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icon from the toolbar into the diagram.
In the pop-up, enter a name, for example "Customer" and click .
PhixFlow adds the table to the canvas and opens its properties tab on the right.
- Name - displays the name entered in step 2. is set as the display attribute for the table. We might want to make reference to how this is used?
- UID - the unique identifier and primary key.
To add attributes to the table:
1. In the table, click Add New. PhixFlow opens the attribute properties.
2. Enter the Name, Type and Length for the data; see Stream Attributes. Attributes are created with the default of a 50 character string. It's important to change this for other types of data, for example, numerical or date/time data. We make no reference to the current table relation button??
3. the attribute properties.
PhixFlow adds the attribute to the table in the ERD.

Add an Existing Table

In the toolbar, click the Tables button. ??icon
PhixFlow filters the repository to show the list of tables available in this application.
Drag a table from the repository onto the ERD canvas.

Creating Relationships Between Attributes

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.

More detail

Click on the source attribute.
Drag to the destination attribute. PhixFlow highlights the attribute when your mouse pointer is over it.
When the destination attribute is highlighted release the click.

Set a display name

Match Data Types

And Phixflow will change the foreign key to match - if there is no data already in the table???

PhixFlow

adds the relationship line
sets the destination attribute to be a foreign key.

Different drags

Drag		Relationship line	Foreign key type
From table1	To table2	Relationship line	Foreign key type
primary key	attribute	table1.primarykey → table2.attribute	Table has no records: attribute type changed to match the primary key
primary key	attribute	table1.primarykey → table2.attribute	Table has records: ??
attribute	primary key	table2.primarykey → table1.attribute	Table has no records:
attribute	primary key	table2.primarykey → table1.attribute	data in table
table header	attribute	table1.primarykey → table2.attribute	Table has no records:
table header	attribute	table1.primarykey → table2.attribute	Table has records:
primary key	primary key		Table has no records:
primary key	primary key		Table has records:
attribute	attribute	table1.primary key → table2.attribute OR makes attribute primary key if there's no UID	Table has no records:
attribute	attribute		Table has records:

If you want to highlight the relationships that affect a table, click the table to select it. The following screenshot shows the Teacher table is selected.

Blue lines indicate relationships to a foreign key in the selected table
Green lines indicate relationships from the primary key in the selected table.

Properties

Parent Details

If this item is within or belongs to another, its parent name is shown here. See the Parent Details section on the Common Properties page for more details.

Basic Settings

Field

Description

Name

The name for the ERD.

When you press Return or click Save PhixFlow opens an empty diagram in the workspace on the left. check??

Description

We recommend that you always enter a description to explain the purpose of this item.

Audit Tab

Audit Summary

See the Common Properties page, Audit Summary section.

ERD Toolbar

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

Tooltips for Dev?? or add the icons??

Option	Description
Create
Create	Drag this icon onto the canvas to create a table.
Screen	Creates a new screen for the selected table.
List
Tables	Click to see a list available tables.
Screens	Click to see a list available screens.
Canvas
Save	Save changes to the diagram. If there is no save icon, PhixFlow is saving changes automatically.
Refresh	Redraw the ERD to display recent changes to the diagram.
Help	Slide open the help panel on the right. there is no help button??
Properties	Open the properties for the current diagram.
Zoom out	Zoom out to see more of the diagram, with smaller text.
Zoom in	Zoom in to see a smaller area of the diagram, with larger text.
Ungroup	Select a grouped set of items and then click to ungroup them. Select several items then click to group them together.
Group	Select several items then click to group them together.
Back	For screen layout, move a component back.
Forward	For screen layout, bring a component forward.
Align options	Click/hover to show all the options for aligning items on the canvas.
Align Grid	Organise selected items into a grid pattern.
Align left	Align selected items to the left.
Align right	Align selected items to the right.
Align top	Align selected objects to the top.
Align bottom	Align selected objects to the bottom.
Distribute horizontally	For 3 or more items, distributes the selected items evenly between the left and right items.
Distribute vertically	For 3 or more items, distributes the selected items evenly between the top and bottom items.

Table Pop-up Menu

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

in the table header, click More Options
right-click anywhere in the table.

Option	Rename to	Description
Configure Table	Table properties	Open the properties for this table.
Remove this item from the Diagram	Remove from ERD	Remove the selected item(s) from the diagram.
Hide Attributes	Hide attributes	Collapse the table so that it only shows the table name, primary key and any foreign keys. Other attributes are hidden.
Show Attributes	Show attributes	Expand the table to show all the attributes
Parmanently Delete	Delete everywhere	DDelete the selected item(s) from the ERD and from everywhere it is used.
Show all tables using this table
Show all tables related tables Show all tables used by this table

??Jira needed for Hide attributes. - It tries but doesnt work on first attempt

Defining Data Structures using ERDs

Overview

Create a New ERD

Open an Existing ERD

Create a New Table

Add an Existing Table

Creating Relationships Between Attributes

Set a display name

Match Data Types

Properties

Parent Details

Basic Settings

Description

Audit Tab

Audit Summary

ERD Toolbar

Create

List

Canvas

Table Pop-up Menu