Once 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.
Do the following to open a relationship definition in Relationship Manager after it is already connected to the server:
Figure 44 shows the "Open Relationship" window.
When you open a relationship, Relationship Manager displays the "retrieve relationships" window, described in Retrieving relationship instances.
Select File > Retrieve Relationship from the menu bar of Relationship Manager to retrieve relationship instances or return a count of how many instances there are for a relationship. This displays the "retrieve relationships" window shown in
Figure 45 shows the "retrieve relationships" window.
Figure 45. Retrieving relationship instances
The "retrieve relationships" window is also displayed when you open a relationship or connect to InterChange Server Express and specify a relationship to open.
You can perform the following operations with the "retrieve relationships" window:
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.
Do the following to retrieve the first 500 instances for a relationship:
Relationship Manager displays the first 500 instances for the relationship.
Do the following to retrieve a range of up to 500 instances:
Relationship Manager displays up to 500 instances in a range of the ids you specify.
Do the following to retrieve a relationship instance based on values for key or nonkey attributes of selected participants:
For identity relationships, the drop-down menu lists the participant names followed by the business object definition with which the participant is associated.
For lookup relationships, the drop-down menu lists the participant names followed by the word "Data".
Table 17. 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.
To return the number of relationship instances that satisfy a retrieval criteria, select the options for the criteria as described in Retrieving all instances, Retrieving by relationship ID, or Retrieving by participant data, and then click Get Count instead of Get Relationships.
Do the following 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 (???). Once you save the relationship instance or any of its participants, InterChange Server 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.
At this point, you can perform any of the tasks in Table 18.
Table 18. Tasks for Participant Data
Task | Action |
---|---|
Save the participant instance. | To save the new participant instance, right-click the participant
instance and choose Save Participant from the context menu.
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 on the participant instance and choosing Delete Participant from the context menu. 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. | Select File > Save All from the menu bar. 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. |
To delete a relationship instance from the relationship tables, select the relationship instance you want to delete and perform one of the following actions:
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.
To deactivate a participant instance, right-click the participant instance you want to deactivate and choose Deactivate Participant from the context menu. The participant is removed from the Relationship Manager display but not from the relationship tables.
To activate a participant instance, take the following steps:
The Deactivated Participants window displays as shown in Figure 46.
The activated participant instance displays in its relationship instance in the Relationship Manager window.
You can create a new participant instance by copying an existing participant instance. To copy a participant instance, take the following steps:
You can load a business object file of the same type into a participant. To load a business object data file into a participant, take the following steps:
The Participant window displays the business object associated with that participant instance, as shown in Figure 47.
Figure 47. Loading participants with business objects