Relationships

In Data Abstract, Relationships are used to define connections between fields in one table to those in another table; like in Relational Databases.

Why use Relationships?

Relationships are incredibly useful because they reduced the need for redundant data and provide a level of data integrity.

For instance you may have two tables, one of customers and one with orders. If you define a relationship between the two such that an Order record must have a Customer ID, then that Order cannot exist without a Customer.

How to Define a Relationship?

Defining relations in Data Abstract is super easy. If you are on Windows, you use Schema Modeler (Windows) and on OS X you would use Server Explorer (Mac).

There are two ways to create a relationship:

• Simply drag and drop the Master table onto what will be the Detail table. The editor will then analyze the tables and pick appropriate fields to be related. You can then confirm or adjust those relationships as need.
• Alternatively you can manually define the relationship in a special view where you can specify the Master & Detail tables, and then the fields to link together.

The information about the relationships is then saved as part of the DASchema in a .daSchema file, and available in the future whenever the server is restarted.

Specific guides for those tools are available in the Tools section.