Relationship Manager allows you to view and perform operations on relationship run-time data, including participants and their data. For background information about relationships, see the Map Development Guide.
You create relationship definitions with Relationship Designer Express. At run time, instances of the relationships are populated with the data that associates information from different applications. This relationship instance data is created when the maps that use the relationships start. The data is stored in the relationship tables specified in the relationship definition. Relationship Manager provides a graphical interface to interact with the relationship tables regardless of the database vendor.
For each relationship instance, Relationship Manager displays a hierarchical listing of its participant definitions and participant instances, which are a set of key and non-key attributes. The relationship tree also provides detailed information about each of the participants in the relationship instance such as the type of entity, its value, and the date it was last modified. A relationship instance ID is automatically generated when the relationship instance is saved in the relationship table. Relationship Manager displays this instance ID at the top level of the relationship tree.
Figure 34 shows an example in Relationship Manager of a relationship tree for an identity relationship.
Figure 34. Relationship Manager, relationship tree
You can use Relationship Manager to work on entities at all levels: the relationship instance, participant instance, and attribute levels. For example, you can use Relationship Manager to:
Perform one of the following steps to start Relationship Manager:
Relationship Manager starts. At this point it is disconnected from the server; you must connect to an InterChange Server Express instance as described in Steps for connecting Relationship Manager to InterChange Server Express to proceed further.
Figure 35 shows Relationship Manager in a disconnected state.
Figure 35. Relationship Manager
You must connect Relationship Manager to InterChange Server Express to work with relationship instances and data. Follow the instructions in the following sections to connect Relationship Manager to a server and disconnect Relationship Manager from it:
Perform the following steps to connect Relationship Manager to InterChange Server Express:
If you do not want to open a relationship at this time you can open it after connecting to the server. For more information, see Steps for opening a relationship.
If you connect to InterChange Server Express in Relationship Manager and specify a relationship to open as described in step 6, then Relationship Manager displays the Retrieve Relationship Instances window, described in Steps for retrieving relationship instances.
Perform the following step to disconnect Relationship Manager from InterChange Server Express: