Introduction

Overview

The TIBCO EBX® Graph View Add-on gives you a global view of your data models and data hierarchy. Its visual representation provides an alternative to standard tabular views. The Graph View provides functionality that makes it simple to query tables, easily access their records and quickly understand the relationships between tables and records.

All of the options provided by the EBX® Graph View Add-on make it simple to effectively communicate the structure of data to users. Even something as simple as the 'Export image' service that captures the current Graph View screen can assist team collaboration and organizational communication efforts.

Basic concepts

You register tables with the add-on to enable Graph View display. Registration involves pointing the add-on to a table, or set of tables via a data space and data set.

After registration, you can tailor Graph View look and feel to fit your specific needs. For example, you can:

• Change standard node shapes, colors and text size.

• Hide, move and drag-and-drop to rearrange nodes.

• Save a reusable display configuration.

• Limit what data users can open in the Graph View.

Graph View display

The Graph View uses nodes to represent your data structure (tables) and data values (records). Arrows that connect nodes denote relationships and relationship direction. Each node label shows which table or record it represents and contains symbols used to convey valuable information. See 'Understanding node labels and symbols' for an explanation of all possible symbols.

Understanding relationships

Foreign key (FK) relationships are represented by arrows between nodes. These arrows also indicate relationship direction. For example, an 'Order portfolio' table may hold a FK to a 'Product' table. The arrow in this case connects the two nodes and points from the 'Order portfolio' table to the 'Product' table.

When you perform a query, an algorithm uses the relationship to return data values to the correct table. This document refers to this action as node resolution; relationships resolve missing data values. For more detailed information regarding the resolution algorithm, see the 'Graph resolution algorithm' section.

When you see the [↑] icon on a node label it indicates a recursive relationship. After performing a data query, the recursive node's value displays as separate values on the node label. The resolution algorithm first gets the current node's context by resolving it through a related node. With the context set, the algorithm finalizes node resolution of the current recursive node by following its recursive relationships. Additionally, recursive relationships allow the Graph View to display data values as a hierarchy.

The next section in this document describes how to setup the add-on for use with your data.