Sparx Systems Forum

Enterprise Architect => General Board => Topic started by: JimF on March 30, 2005, 08:38:25 am

Title: foreign key on table
Post by: JimF on March 30, 2005, 08:38:25 am
Since the columns on a table class are already marked on the side as being a foreign key, I'm not sure what the point of having all the FKs listed in the frame at the bottom is. Takes up a lot of space on what is already a crowded diagram. I can't figure out any way hide them, does someone know?
Title: Re: foreign key on table
Post by: Bruno.Cossi on March 30, 2005, 08:44:49 am
Hi,

right-click on the table, go to Element Features > Specify Feature Visibility and uncheck the Operations.

Hope this helps!
Bruno

Quote
Since the columns on a table class are already marked on the side as being a foreign key, I'm not sure what the point of having all the FKs listed in the frame at the bottom is. Takes up a lot of space on what is already a crowded diagram. I can't figure out any way hide them, does someone know?

Title: Re: foreign key on table
Post by: JimF on March 30, 2005, 08:53:45 am
Awesome Bruno!

Any way to do that on a more global level, or do I need to hit each table individually?
Title: Re: foreign key on table
Post by: JimF on March 30, 2005, 08:55:37 am
It's interesting that a foreign key is considered an "operation". I've got to get my mind around that...
Title: Re: foreign key on table
Post by: JimF on March 30, 2005, 09:49:18 am
Any way to hide individual columns (attributes)? Reason why I might want to do this is, typically I have to create several ERDs because one diagram is just too much to print or even comprehend. So I break the data model up into logical pieces. I might show the entire employee table in one piece, then in another need to show the employee table again, but this time only a few columns are pertinent to other tables in that piece. I've figured out how to hide all the attributes, and that is useful, because I may just want to show the table with no columns (perhaps a note saying refer to different diagram to see all the columns), but again, in some cases, showing some columns and not others might be useful.
Title: Re: foreign key on table
Post by: Bruno.Cossi on March 30, 2005, 09:57:59 am
Hi,

it is not so much that a key is considered an operation, it is more due to the fact that EA is a UML modeling tool and the database modeling features have been a bit twisted to fit into the application. The class operations are used to represent primary and foreign keys, indexes, triggers...

Bruno


Quote
It's interesting that a foreign key is considered an "operation". I've got to get my mind around that...

Title: Re: modelling keys as operations
Post by: sargasso on March 30, 2005, 03:22:19 pm
I have seen the advocacy of using operations to denote keys somewhere by one of the high priests (Hay, Ambler, Fowler et al) but I cant lay my hands on it at the moment.

Interestingly, Ambler suggests using attribute stereotyping to denote key membership, then goes on to say that it is confusing at best.... :-/


bruce