After you have started Relationship Manager and connected it to an InterChange Server Express, you can use Relationship Manager to work with relationship data as described in the following sections:
Steps for opening a relationship
Steps for retrieving relationship instances
Steps for creating relationship instances
Steps for deleting relationship instances
Deactivating and activating participants
Steps for copying participants
Steps for loading and unloading business object files
Perform the following steps to open a relationship definition in Relationship Manager after it is already connected to the server:
Figure 37 shows the Open Relationship dialog box.
When you open a relationship, Relationship Manager displays the Retrieve Relationship Instances window, described in Steps for retrieving relationship instances.
Perform the following steps to retrieve relationship instances or to return a count of how many instances there are for a relationship:
The Retrieve Relationship Instances window is also displayed when you specify a relationship to open when connecting to InterChange Server Express.
Depending on the number of participants in the relationship definition and the number of participant instances in each relationship instance, these retrieval queries may take some time.
Perform the following steps to retrieve the first 500 instances for a relationship:
Relationship Manager displays the first 500 instances for the relationship.
Perform the following steps to retrieve a range of up to 500 instances by relationship ID:
Relationship Manager displays up to 500 instances in a range of the IDs specified.
Perform the following steps to retrieve a relationship instance based on values for key or non-key attributes of selected participants:
For identity relationships, participant names are followed by the business object definition with which the participant is associated.
For lookup relationships, participant names are followed by the word "Data".
Table 12. Supported values for retrieving relationship instances by participant data
Value | Description |
---|---|
Participant data | The data of the selected participant.
For example, if the relationship is an identity relationship you would specify the ID of the participant instance that you know to find the relationship instance in which it exists. If the relationship is a lookup relationship you would specify the non-key data value of the participant instance. |
% |
Any string of characters. This option is case-sensitive; numbers are included in the character set. For example, if %A were specified for a participant that stores
abbreviated forms of the names of the United States, the values CA,
GA, IA, LA, MA, PA,
VA, and WA would be returned.
|
_ |
Any single character. As an example, _00 would retrieve 100,
200, a00, b00, and so forth.
|
Relationship Manager displays the first 500 relationship instances that match the specified value.
Perform the following steps to return the number of relationship instances that satisfy a retrieval criteria:
Perform the following steps to create a new instance for a relationship:
Relationship Manager displays the new relationship instance.
Highlighted at the top of the hierarchal relationship tree, on the entry line with the relationship icon is the placeholder for the relationship instance ID, which displays three question marks (???). After you save the relationship instance or any of its participants, InterChange Server Express automatically generates the new relationship instance ID and Relationship Manager replaces the question marks with this instance ID.
The relationship tree displays participant definitions, participant instances, and participant key and non-key attributes beneath the relationship instance in descending order.
Table 13. Tasks for participant data
Task | Action |
---|---|
Save the participant instance. | To save the new participant instance, right-click the participant
instance and click Save Participant. Relationship Manager
saves in the appropriate relationship table the data for this
participant. The Modified column for the participant
instances displays the date the participant was saved, which is the create
date, in this case.
|
Add more participant instances. | Repeat repeat step 3 in the previous list.
|
Delete a participant. | If necessary, you can delete a saved participant instance by right-clicking the participant instance and selecting Delete Participant. Relationship Manager removes the participant instance from the relationship table. If you do not want to remove the participant instance from the database, use the Deactivate Participant option (see "Deactivating and activating participants"). A deactivated participant retains its instance ID and its values. |
Save the relationship instance. | Save the relationship instance by performing one of the following
tasks:
|
Save all relationship instances. | Click File > Save All. InterChange Server Express generates the relationship instance IDs for any relationship instances that do not have one. Relationship Manager replaces any ??? placeholders with the new IDs. Relationship Manager updates the modified date on all saved participant instances to this date. |
Perform the following steps to delete a relationship instance from the relationship tables:
The relationship instance and its data are deleted from the relationship tables for the current relationship.
A participant instance can be deactivated, or made inactive. Deactivating a participant instance removes it from the relationship instance and prevents it from displaying in the Relationship Manager window, but its record remains in the relationship table so it can be re-activated in the future.
Perform the following step to deactivate a participant instance:
Perform the following steps to activate a participant instance:
The Deactivated Participants window appears as shown in Figure 39.
The activated participant instance appears in its relationship instance in the Relationship Manager window.
You can create a new participant instance by copying an existing participant instance.
Perform the following steps to copy a participant instance:
You can load a business object file of the same type into a participant. Perform the following steps to load a business object data file into a participant:
The Load Participant with Business Object dialog box displays the business object associated with that participant instance, as shown in Figure 40.
Figure 40. Load Participants with Business Objects dialog box