ERD Fundamentals

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:

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  Table to list all available tables in the repository 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  Table icon onto the canvas.
   • To add an existing table, on the toolbar, click  Table. 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 onto the canvas. PhixFlow imports the spreadsheet 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 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 link to list the existing ERDs.
2. Click the  Add New button to create a new ERD.

Opening an ERD

1.  On your application's home page, click the ERD link to list the existing ERDs.
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 file, use an analysis model to import it. 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.