The ORM Foundation

I am enjoying ORM having obtained "Information Modeling and Relational Databases" and the NORMA tool. It will suit my role as an information architect very well. However I have hit a snag.

I have created the ORM model in Figure 1.6 and turned on the Relational View. I cannot get the Relational View to reflect both the 'directed by' and 'reviewed by' roles, only one of the role shows. I thought this might have something to do with the exclusion constraint, but if I turn of the Relational View, delete the exclusion constraint, save the model then turn the Relational View back on the problem remains, only one of the roles is represented in the Relational View.

My setup is:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
Version 9.0.21022.8 RTM
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 3.5

Installed Edition: Professional

Microsoft Visual Basic 2008   91605-270-5897686-60975
Microsoft Visual Basic 2008

Microsoft Visual C# 2008   91605-270-5897686-60975
Microsoft Visual C# 2008

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008   91605-270-5897686-60975
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Tools for Office   91605-270-5897686-60975
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Tools for Office

Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008   91605-270-5897686-60975
Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008

Crystal Reports    AAJ60-G0MSA4K-68000CF
Crystal Reports Basic for Visual Studio 2008

Neumont PLiX Tools for Visual Studio   1.0.804.2905 2008-04CTP
PLiX (Programming Language in XML) code generation tools.

ORM Solutions Natural ORM Architect   1.0.910.4702 2009-10CTP
Natural Object-Role Modeling Architect (NORMA)
ORM Solutions, LLC
Portions copyright Neumont University

Hi Stephen,
Glad to hear that you are enjoying ORM.
Have you looked at the NORMA tutorials in the library?
Pages 13 & 14 of Tutorial 2 explain how to add reverse readings.

If this does not solve your problem, please let us know.

Ken

Hi Stephen,

Reverse readings are used to provide better column names, but will not otherwise affect the structure of the relational model.

If there are any errors in your model (check for red on the diagram, or the 'Error List' tool window available on the View menu), then the elements with errors will not appear in the relational view.

I'm getting a relational model (visible through either the Relational View or the Model Browser) with the following tables:

• Movie(movieNr, movieTitle, [personName])
• Person(personName, countryCode)
• MovieWasReviewedByPerson(movieNr, personName)

There are several ways to get a better column name for the directory than 'personName' (pick one or more)

• Select the right role in the 'Move was directed by Person' fact type and set the name property to 'director' 
• Experiment with the 'Default*ReferenceModeNames' properties that are available with the relation extension turned on. You will see these with an ORM model selection, or with a 'Name Generation Settings/Name Generation Defaults/Relational Names/Column Specific' selection in the Model Browser (the second selection lets you change the settings with the Relational View visible). For this model, expanding the DefaultPopularReferenceModeNames property and changing PrimaryIdentifierName to ReferenceMode Name and ReferencedEntityTypeName to EntityType Name will change the names as shown below:
• Movie(nr, movieTitle, [person])
• Person(name, country)
• MovieWasReviewedByPerson(movie, person)

If you are missing one of these columns, which column is missing? 

The exclusion constraint is not yet generated with the relational model or DDL. Major revisions to the relational generation capabilities are an area we will be focusing on in the next 6 months.

-Matt 

Thanks Matt, the column is no longer missing and is now called 'director'! Thanks for the other information also. I will keep an eye out for new releases.

Stephen.

Thanks Ken. I did go through all the tutorials and they are excellent. Matt solved the mystery. The fact was not missing just not called 'director' and hence not noticed!

 Stephen

Stephen,

A quick note on this scenario: 

The Verbalization Browser displays the full fact type lineage of a relational column when you select that column in either the relational view or model browser. If you want to view a specific fact type or object type in context without losing the selection in the relational view, then make sure the Diagram Spy and Verbalization Browser windows are docked in separate tab groups and use the Verbalization Browser hyperlinks to navigate through the model.

Determine if a hyperlink targets the document window or diagram spy window is controlled with the third button on the Verbalization Browser toolbar (the tooltip is Hyperlink changes ORM Diagram Spy selection).

-Matt