Creating New Associations

Associations adopt blue dotted line with rhombus shaped heads on both the ends, as shown below. One head will be anchored to the Principal entity and the other head will be anchored to the Dependent entity. The association does not provide pictorial representation of the direction and multiplicity (one-to-one or one-to-many).

Associations can be created between any two entities, provided that one or more API relationships exist between their respective API mappings. Between the two entities, one serves as “Principal”, whereas the other serves as “Dependent”.

To define a new association between two entities, entities must be brought on to the Design canvas first. Below is the suggested work flow for defining an association:

1. Make sure the respective Entities are “Checked-out”.

2. Drag and drop both entities on to the Design Canvas, if they are not already there.

3. Select the “Association” tool on the Standard Tools.

4. Click on the “Principal” entity and draw association to the “Dependent” entity, holding the left mouse button down.
The system automatically displays a dialog as shown below, where the user can pick the appropriate API Relationship from the drop-down.

5. The system automatically sets the Multiplicity and the associated properties.

6. The system automatically adds the “Navigation Properties” for the Principal and Dependant Entities.

The association can be modified any time either by double-clicking the association on the canvas or clicking the "..." ellipsis button on the Properties pane.

In case, either one or both entities are mapped to User Defined API Collection, the “Multiplicity” combo box of the Dependent will be enabled and it is the responsibility of the user to pick the right multiplicity.