Creating a Link Type

A link type defines the name and the default color of the link records created in iBase. It might also restrict the entity types allowed at the end of the link.

About this task

A link type usually contains fields to hold information about the link. For example, you might want to create a link type named Telephone Owner, with color Blue, and restricted to use with one of the link end entities being Telephone. If, for example, you chart iBase data in Analyst's Notebook you might also want to assign a suitable semantic type for it.

You can create a new link type or edit an existing entity type using the New Link and Link dialogs.

After creating a link type, you can add fields specific to the new link type by creating new fields or copying existing ones. See Field Types for details.

Procedure

  1. Select New > Link Type.

  2. Click the Details tab to display the Details page.

  3. Enter the name for the link type.

  4. Enter a description. This can help to indicate the type of data this particular link type should be used for.

  5. Select a link Color.

  6. In most cases, you should leave the Select in 'Expand' list checkbox turned on. As for entity types, this checkbox controls an initial setting when viewing charts sent from iBase to Analyst's Notebook, which users can change easily.

  7. Modify the information about the ends that can be used with the link type by clicking the End Types tab to display the End Types page and turning off the checkboxes for any entity types that you want to make invalid.

    Note: You can leave all settings on the End Types page unchanged. If you do make changes to the settings on the End Types page, you are restricting the entities that the link type will allow to be connected at either end of the link type. It is not meaningful to turn off all checkboxes in a list, that makes it impossible to create one end of the link. If you try to do this, iBase allows all entity types at that end.

  8. If required, assign a semantic type to the link type. For further information, see Assigning Semantic Types to your data.

  9. Click OK to save the link type.

Results

When you click OK you are returned to the Database window where the new link type is listed in the Database Explorer under Link Types. The right pane of the window displays the color and name of the link type and a list of any standard fields that already exist for the link.