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Picture 1. Ellie login screen.
Editing
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a Conceptual Model
When you wish to start editing a Model, an Entity or a Metadata, click on the ‘Edit’ button in the upper right corner of the screen.
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2. When you are editing a large Model, you can free up visual space by showing and hiding the sidebar on the right.
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Picture 3. Use the arrows to show and hide the sidebar from the right.
3. In order to add an Entity, use the drag’n’drop feature by selecting an entity from the sidebar and dragging it onto the place you wish it to reside in.
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4. Double-click on an Entity in the canvas to insert Metadataaccess the Entity’s Glossary view, where you can edit its metadata. There is also an Edit button in the Metadata formGlossary view, for editing.
5. Right-click on an Entity to change it’s category its Entity type (there are multiple categoriestypes, all signified by colors, such as Master, Contract, Transaction, etc. (See the section on Entity types for more information on the category types)).
Viewing Content
To browse content in Ellie, there is a view mode (unless the user has Admin or Write privileges, they are automatically in the view mode).
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2. Click on the T in the top bar to add a free-format text box, excellent for further explaining the Relationship between these two Entities, or for adding to-do notes or other additional text on the model canvas.
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Picture 8. Add additional free-text information to Relationships by drag’n’dropping the T icon
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This specific three-pronged cardinal means that only a general “one-to-many” is specified, with no optional-mandatory things configured, as of yet. Often in the early phases of editing modeling, this is enough (saving time, as you don’t have to dig too deep in at the beginning of modeling), and you can add defining details later on.
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First, there are no crows feet in the Relationship from Invoice to Organization, we know that this is “one-to-one”. After that, we have defined that there has to be exactly onle one Organization for each Invoice (minimum 1, maximum 1) - by adding a little cross-line (read it as “number one”).
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Picture 13. There are many cardinalities to choose from
By having no crows crow's feet in the Relationship between the Invoice and the Organization, we now know that this is a “one-to-one” (max is 1). Then we can define that an Invoice does not have to have an Organization related to it, by adding a circle (you can read this as a “zero”).
Entity Subtypes
Some Entities can have subtypes. Let’s look at an example of a travel agency industry to illustrate subtyping in Ellie.
Hotel Booking and Flight Booking are subtypes of Booking. Customer and Booking Confirmation are related to the main entity Booking, and Flight Booking and Hotel Booking have their own relationships.
This would be the notation that could be used, kind of notation is used by e.g. Len Silverston in his Universal Data Models books, and by Graeme Simsion in this his book Data Modeling Essentials.
In our experience, business people understand this quite intuitively. You can find more detailed explanation of subtypes in Ellie from our Modeler’s Corner blog post: https://ellie.ai/blogs/modelers-corner-4-subtypes-in-data-modeling/
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Picture 14. Subtypes in Ellie
Entity Types
In Ellie, the idea is to make models more readable, faster to build, and easier to add information about the nature of the data you are seeing. This is based on the notion that there are certain similarities between models, even across different industries. We have seen that a simple categorization of entities helps here. This should be considered a “best practice style” that can be used on top of a normal conceptual model.
The entities are divided into six classes: Master data, Contract, Transaction, Reference, Transaction header, and Transaction detail. In Ellie, we use the colors these are color-coded in the following way:
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Picture 15. You can browse Entity types, when in the View mode, by clicking on the Explanation box on the bottom left corner.
Master Data
Master Data Entities represent independent data, which means that data can be stored anytime, independent of other Entities. The typical master data entities are as follows:
Customer
Product
Employee
Organization Unit
Account
Person
Location
Master data entities usually have their own identifier, such as a customer number.
Master data represents a “register” type of data, which is stored for long periods of time and occasionally updated. Often the volume of Master data is not high, compared to, for instance Transactions (usually there are more invoices than customers).
Master data Entities are intriguing for many parts of organizations. Master data such as Customer or Product are reusable entities for many models.
One part of Master data is the reference data, e.g. postal numbers, country codes, customer segments. Reference data is not necessarily the most important data, but it is definitely helpful. This type of information can be entered into an application before any other data is added.
There is a special colour (grey) assigned for reference data, available from the Extended Entity Type listing in Ellie. You can use this for further clarification of the Model.
The great news here is that there are not that many Master data Entities in any company. It would be a good idea to first start modeling by identifying the Master data Entities.
Transaction Data
Transaction Entities represent data that is transactional, such as an invoice, an order, a website visit, a financial transaction, a contact with a customer. This Transaction Entity normally has a definable date and a time. Transactions are not usually independent, as they have to have a Relationship to a Master or a Contract Entity - even sometimes being connected to another Transaction.
The volume of Transaction data is often very high.
Contract
Contract Entities depict data that has a start and an endtime, like a project, a bank account, a vendor contract, a phone subscription or a campaign.
For instance, a bank account is not Master data, because it is not independent, you have to have the Customer first, perhaps also the branch (check the picture below). A bank account is obviously not a Transaction either, so it is typically a Contract.
Contract Entities are often long-lasting and can change occasionally, or sometimes frequently. Contract Entities are by no means independent, they are most often related to several Master data Entities (such as a Customer or a Branch) and they often have one or several Transactions related to them (such as a Bank Transaction to an account).
Do keep in mind that the term Contract in the context of Ellie does not mean a “legal contract”. It simply refers to a label for a piece of data.
You can find more information on Ellie’s Entity types from our Modeler’s Corner blog post on this.
Setting an Entity Type
Right-click on an Entity. Choose the Entity type from the context menu. In this example, the Entity “Customer-account role” is assigned to be a Contract.
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5. Define the role of each user, a role can be either Admin, Write or Read. Admins can create new content (Models, Business Glossary) and add more users. Writes can also create new Models and Business Glossary Items, but cannot add users. Readers are only allowed to view the Models, Glossary Items, and Reports.
Importing content to Ellie
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In case you have more questions, we’ll be happy to help you!
You can contact us through by e-mailing johannessupport@ellie.hovi@ellie.ai or by phone +358503670809.