Basic Modeling Tips
Ellie is based on Models. In a model, you can have several Entities connected to each other using Relations. Each entity, when created, becomes a part of the Glossary. An entity can be reused in other models by adding it to the model from the Glossary.
Here are some tips to get you up & running with Ellie as required by the tutorials:
- to keep the Raw Model entities and Business Model entities separated, use an appropriate naming convention for the models, for example the prefix RM or BM for Raw Model and Business Model, respectively
- to further separate and identify models describing different source systems, you can include the source name in the model name
- make readable models by keeping the amount of entities reasonable: one model should be readable when printed on paper
- datatypes to be used for attributes can be found here
Metadata
Entity Metadata
Ellie supports Entity types which roughly correspond to the Archetypes used in D♯ Engine. After having created the Entity in Ellie, assign the correct Entity type according to this table:
| For Archetype… | …select Ellie Type |
|---|---|
| Party, Place, Thing | Master |
| Moment – Interval | Contract |
| Role | Not set (leave unassigned) |
| Description | Reference |
The Entity metadata is defined for the Entity by writing the metadata parameter name and value in a text box dedicated for this purpose. Entity-specific metadata is written in the Implementation Notes textbox below. The label and location of the textbox may vary depending on the individual Ellie configuration that is in use. If your configuration does not work with D♯ Engine, contact devsupport(at)dsharp.fi
Metadata values (both Entity and Attribute) should be copied to the metadata text field from here.
Attribute Metadata
Attribute metadata is written into the Notes text box:
Relation End Metadata
Ellie does not currently support relation end metadata.
Exporting the Model
In order to make the model available for D♯ Engine, you need to export it to the working directory. Ellie produces separate .csv export files for the entities, attributes and relations. Exporting these files is done from a Report, and the files will be downloaded to your Downloads folder. From there, you should move them to your D♯ Engine project folder/working directory. Refer to the Ellie documentation how to create a report.
You can open the exported model with the D♯ Engine Open Ellie Model -command. Navigate to the working directory and open any of the three .csv files. D♯ Engine will process all three files. Before opening, remove any older version of the files, as otherwise the read process will create duplicates.
