In the last release we introduced a cool tool which allows you to see the structure of your application at a high level. The tool is called "Relationship Diagram". We want to know what you think about this new tool. Please share below!If this if your first time hearing about this tool, let me tell you how you can play with it. Go to your home page and click on settings in the upper left. Next click on "Application Management" and then under the section titled "Show App Info" click on "Show Relationship Diagram". From here you can rearrange the diagram. Click and drag a table in the diagram to move it to a different place on the page. Once you have rearranged the diagram to your liking, click Save this layout. If you return to the relationship diagram for this app, it will display as you have saved it. If you don't like the layout, click Clear saved layout and refresh the page. Read more here: http://www.quickbase.com/user-assistance/Default.html#relationship_diagram.html

I love it! You need to spend a bit of time per app, especially the larger ones, to drag the boxes around so they make more sense. Then, like you say, remember to SAVE with the the big Green save button! It helps to quickly identify Cross App Relationships as those boxes are dotted. It also shows tables which have no relationships and some of those might be able to be deleted.

Very cool. Can you make it so it shows cross-app relationships too?Also, almost every time I drag and drop a table, this annoying pop-up keeps coming up with details about the table. How do I stop that?

I would pretty much ditto the comments from Coach.

In answer to Adam's Cross app question, ... Like the Relationships themselves, it only shows half the Relationship , ie it shows on the child side, but not on the Parent Table. ie if you are pulling in a Customer Name from a table in a centralized app into a Order Entry app, it will show on the Order Entry app. But the Relationship does not show on the Parent Side - the Centralized table either on the Relationship, or the Diagram for the Centralized parent app.

I have thoroughly evaluated this feature and reviewed the relevant academic literature including this summary: A COMPARISON OF DATA MODELING TECHNIQUES (search for "crow" within document)http://essentialstrategies.com/documents/comparison.pdf I have two conclusions: 1) use crow's foot instead of an arrowhead to connect tables 2) use staircase lines not straight lines to connect tables BTW, something is wrong with the forum - neither your hyerlink nor mine are clickable.

Relationship Diagrams-What are your thoughts?

16 Replies

QuickBaseCoachD
Qrew Captain
9 years ago
I love it! You need to spend a bit of time per app, especially the larger ones, to drag the boxes around so they make more sense. Then, like you say, remember to SAVE with the the big Green save button! It helps to quickly identify Cross App Relationships as those boxes are dotted. It also shows tables which have no relationships and some of those might be able to be deleted.
ArchiveUser
Qrew Captain
9 years ago
Very cool. Can you make it so it shows cross-app relationships too?

Also, almost every time I drag and drop a table, this annoying pop-up keeps coming up with details about the table. How do I stop that?
DavidHawe
Qrew Trainee
9 years ago
I would pretty much ditto the comments from Coach.
QuickBaseCoachD
Qrew Captain
9 years ago
In answer to Adam's Cross app question, ... Like the Relationships themselves, it only shows half the Relationship , ie it shows on the child side, but not on the Parent Table. ie if you are pulling in a Customer Name from a table in a centralized app into a Order Entry app, it will show on the Order Entry app. But the Relationship does not show on the Parent Side - the Centralized table either on the Relationship, or the Diagram for the Centralized parent app.
_anomDiebolt_
Qrew Elite
9 years ago
I have thoroughly evaluated this feature and reviewed the relevant academic literature including this summary:

A COMPARISON OF DATA MODELING TECHNIQUES (search for "crow" within document)
http://essentialstrategies.com/documents/comparison.pdf

I have two conclusions:

1) use crow's foot instead of an arrowhead to connect tables

2) use staircase lines not straight lines to connect tables

BTW, something is wrong with the forum - neither your hyerlink nor mine are clickable.
LauraThacker
Qrew Captain
9 years ago
I like it - it's a great option since Visio no longer offers Reverse Engineer in its latest software and we have to revert back to old laptops to do them. I think, however; since relationships are such an integral part of QuickBase, that using crows feet rather than arrows better describes the relationships. I know that the pop up dialog annoyed me when I was rearranging an entire application of tables to lay them out better so they weren't all crossing over each other. It would be nice to be able to have it display but then auto-close if it has to keep popping up. I'm sure I'll have some other comments when I do one on a bigger application.
MarkShnier
Qrew Trainee
9 years ago
I agree w/ Laura (QuickBase Pros) that the pop up annoying when you are trying to untangle a complex app. It should drop off once you click outside its box. I would also agree with the crows feet, although I do not claim to have read Dan's 50 page pdf.
_anomDiebolt_
Qrew Elite
9 years ago
Compare this post which generated an ER diagram using data extracted from QuickBase (Northwind Traders database) and fed to graphviz using the neato layout engine:
Entity Relationship Diagrams in Quickbase?https://quickbase-community.intuit.com/questions/58087-entity-relationship-diagrams-in-quickbase
Final ER diagramhttp://i.imgur.com/wXmuR.jpg
This is the script that did the generation of the graphviz file:
Graphviz Generation Scripthttp://pastie.org/2424130
I have not looked at this in over four years but I think that script is general purpose so it could be used on any QuickBase application.
Update: Compare the above ER diagram with what the QuickBzase a=?reldiagram produces
https://haversineconsulting.quickbase.com/db/bf3zb9bph?a=reldiagram
ElizaEliza
Qrew Member
9 years ago
Thank you all for the feedback! Adam-I experienced the same thing with the pop-up. You can position it off to the side and it stays there as you click around. That may help.
HeatherBryant
Qrew Member
9 years ago
Hey Eliza,

I'm using this feature for the first time. If another admin logs in and changes the layout, will it override the one that I've saved?

Thanks

-Heather