Working with diagrams and their components

You can waste away many hours laying out the elements on a diagram. Therefore, this aspect of modeling can be time consuming. However, a model serves as documentation and a communication device. Therefore, taking the time to make sure it is well annotated and clearly designed is important. Most of the controls for the models are on the context menu, allowing you to modify individual aspects of the diagram. The context menu changes depending on whether you have an object or line selected, or you’re just clicking in the open space. You can also set general defaults using Tools | General Options | Diagram. In this section, we’ll look at the various options available when working with the diagrams.

Formatting the elements

Before moving a relationship line, entity, or table, you can dramatically change the impact and readability of a large diagram just by changing the colors. This is readily demonstrated when importing from two or more schemas. Using the previous example where we imported from two schemas, open one of the subviews and select all of the tables. With the objects selected, invoke the Format Object dialog using the context menu:

If this is the first time you are adjusting the colors, the dialog does not display any colors as you open it. The colors used in the diagram are the default settings. Deselect Use Default Color and click on the Background and Border Color items to select and set the new color. When you are done, click on OK and note the changes applied to the subview. Switch to the main relational model to review the impact there. The color applied to the subview is also applied to the main model as shown. This is very useful when illustrating how tables in different schemas relate to each other. For example, take the HR and OE sample schema, all of the tables related to human resources are maintained in the HR schema, while those related to the order entry system are maintained in the OE schema. You may well have applications designed around the HR schema and others tied to the OE schema, but some may involve both. In the following relational model, the OE tables are now colored green, so we’re able to identify them, but we can also see where the schemas link. We can see that a CUSTOMER may deal with one EMPLOYEE and has many ORDERS:

Selecting all of the tables in a model
Select any table and click on Select Neighbors from the context menu. Select All Zones, to select all of the tables. Use this instead of Ctrl+A, which selects all tables and all lines.

Changing the default format settings

Instead of changing individual items or even a set of items, you can change the default color for each of the element types displayed on a diagram. The Tools | General Options | Diagram | Format provides the ability to control the color of each of the elements displayed such as tables, views, and entities:

To edit any of the elements in the dialog, double-click on the object, or select the object and the edit icon. This allows you to adjust the color of the item and to format the font. You can use the font color to highlight mandatory, Unique, or Foreign Keys.

Setting general diagram properties

Use the same Tools | General Options | Diagram to set model properties,which include:

• Displaying the grid
• Controlling the background color of the diagram
• Controlling the Auto Route feature which is on by default

Set display properties for certain items on each of the models, including the control of:

• The diagram notation for the logical model, which supports the Barker and Bachman notations
• The display of the relationship names for either the logical or relational models
• The flow names for process models

For example, to display the relationship names on an Entity Relationship Diagram (as seen below), check the display property on the Tools | General Options | Model | Logical, and ensure that the Relation Cardinality properties for the relationships are also set.

Creating subviews and displays

Adding subviews and displays offers you alternative ways of laying out elements on a diagram and for working with subsets of items. You can create multiple subviews and displays for either logical or relational models, and remove them as easily, without impacting the main models.

Adding subviews to your design

You have already encountered a subview by importing from a number of schemas in the data dictionary. Subviews are not only a reflection of the different schemas in a design, but they can also represent any subset of elements in the design, allowing you to work with a smaller, more manageable set of elements.

You can create a subview from the object browser by selecting:

• The SubViews node and using the New SubView context menu. In this case, you have a new empty diagram that you can populate by dragging tables or entities (depending on the subview in question) onto the page.
• Any of the model tabs and then selecting the Create SubView menu. This creates a new and empty subview.
• An element or elements on an existing model and using the Create SubView from selected context menu on the diagram. In this case, the new subview will contain the tables or entities you selected:

The layout of the subview is not linked to the main model in any way. What is linked is how you format the items on the subview and any structural changes you make to the objects. You can continue to add new items to the subview by dragging them onto the surface from the object browser. When deleting items from the subview, you should choose whether the item is deleted:

• From the view (Delete View)
• From the complete design (Delete Object)

Adding displays

A display is an alternative view of a diagram, whether a main model or a subview, and is linked directly to that model. If you delete the model, the display is also deleted. Any items that you add or remove from displays are also automatically added or removed from the main model they are linked to.

To create a new display, select the tab of any model and select Create Display from the context menu. The new display created is, initially, a replica of the model you selected in both layout and items available. All additional displays are listed at the bottom of the model. In the following example, the HR subview has two displays created, as highlighted at the bottom of the screenshot, the main HR display and the new Display_1. The Create Display context menu is also illustrated:

Use the new display to change the layout of the model and to adjust the level of detail displayed on the diagram.

A second display of the same model is useful when you want to show more or less detail on a model. You can, for example, create a display which only displays the entity or table names. Right-click in the space on a diagram and select View Details | Names Only. We’ll discuss how to layout the diagram elements later.

Creating a composite view

If you create a number of subviews, create a new diagram showing the composite models of each of these on a single layout. This serves as a useful reminder of the number of subviews or models you have by having a thumbnail of the various layouts. Alternatively, you can add a composite view of one subview and place it on another.

To create a composite view, select the model in the browser and drag it onto the diagram surface. You can drag any model onto any other diagram surface, except its own:

Once you have the composite folder displayed on the diagram, display the composite model within that folder by selecting Composite View from the context menu. If the model you want to view has a selection of displays, then you can also select the display you want to see within that composite.

The following screenshot shows the, subview, displaying the composite models of the HR subview, the main logical model, and both displays of the logical model:

Controlling the layout

When working with a large number of items in a model, it’s important to keep the layout organized. A variety of tools to help with the process are explained in the following sections.

Adjusting the level of detail displayed

Change the amount of detail displayed in a table (or entity) using the View Details menu. It is invoked with a right-click on the white space of any diagram. The View Details menu has options for displaying:

• All Details
• Names Only
• Columns
• Datatype
• Keys

Adjusting the width and height across the model

If you have a large diagram and want to see how tables or entities relate to each other, you can create a more compact model using a display, without impacting the main model. This can be done by setting the details to display the name only and then resizing and repositioning the objects.

In the following screenshot, we have set the model to display only the name of the tables. Create a more compact diagram by resizing one of the tables to a more fitting set of dimensions, select the rest, and then resize them all to the same width and height:

Controlling alignment

Once you have positioned the items, align them to complete the model. Use the Edit menu with the required items for top and left alignment as shown in the following screenshot:

Resizing and alignment
The first item you select is the one that drives the position for left or top alignment, and the item that controls the width and height of all subsequent items selected.