Using the Data Manager

The RISE editor has a built in data manager for adding data to your models. The data manager has two main purposes; adding configuration data to systems during deployment, and adding test data during development. The data manager should not be seen as an alternative way of working with data in deployed systems.

 

When generating database scripts, statements are added to the script inserting the entity instances created using the data manager. The instances are only inserted once. This means that if you deploy a system from a model containing configuration data, alter the data in the model, and update the database, the data will not be updated. However, new data added to the model since last deployment will be inserted into the database.

 

Adding default data to your model is a powerful way to configure your system solutions without having to build an administration client or work directly against your database to set it up. Just enter your configuration data through the Data Manager and it will be set up together with each deployment.

 

 

 

In this example, we have created a new model using the "Hello World" template model. This template model contains configuration data for both the entities Country and Hello. To display the data manager for an entity, right click on the entity in one of your drawings or in the project tree, and select Manage Data from the context menu.

 

 

 

The data manager contains two data grids. The upper most data grid represents the selected entity. The grid contains one column for each attribute in the entity along with one column for each relation node (or end point) related to the entity. A row in the data grid represents an instance of the entity. The lower most datagrid is used to relate instances via the relations in your model.

 

In the upper most datagrid you can enter data into the attribute cells. Dates and floats are entered into the datagrid according to the regional settings of your computer. The relation node cells display how many instances that are related along with the signature of the related instances. If you click on a relation node cell, a data grid will be displayed in the bottom part of the form, allowing you to relate instances. Check the boxes of the instace or instances that you want to relate.

 

Some RISE database code generators can be configured to ignore RISE. This means that the generated database model does not contain tables for keeping track of the model evolution, which in turn means that RISE cannot help you updating a database using a new version of the model. It also means that RISE will not be able to insert configuration data.