Grid View

The grid view, accessible in a lower tab of the central pane, displays data modeling objects in a tabular layout, as an alternative to the existing ER diagram view, graph view, or hierarchical schema view. It displays modeling objects as rows and their properties as columns. You can sort, filter, group, and configure which columns are visible. You can even edit some properties directly in the grid.  For additional use cases, for example with vlookups or macros it is still possible to export to Excel and import from Excel from the Tools menu.

 

Note: the grid view continues to be progressively enriched with additional features such as editing more properties, exporting grid content to Excel, saving grid configurations, and much more. Stay tuned!

 

The grid view is currently available at 2 levels:

• the model grid, which lists the modeling objects of the entire model. In this first version, this grid lists containers, entities, and attributes. Views and relationships are coming soon.

  • Also, the model grid is available only for the main ERD. Adding it for each ERDV is planned but not yet available.

• the entity grid, which lists the attributes of a single entity, when having the entity opened in an upper tab.

 

Those grids are accessible via the lower tab "Grid View":

• in second position, right after the ER Diagram tab at model level
   

 

 

• in second position, right after the Schema tab at entity level
   

 

 

Both grids share the same behavior for column configuration, sorting, filtering, and grouping. The main difference is the scope of the rows.  Behavior specific to the model grid can be found further below.

 

 

Common grid features

Select columns

You can choose which properties appear as columns. Open the column selector from the grid toolbar, then check the properties you want to display, or uncheck them.

 

 

The column selector lists the properties of all the tabs of the properties pane, including custom properties. Some plugin-specific properties are not yet present. The missing ones will be added progressively in upcoming versions.

 

Reorder columns

You can reorder columns by dragging a column header to a new position. 

 

Resize a column

You can resize a column by dragging the right border of the column header.  Or you can maximize its size to the widest content in the column by double-clicking on the right border of the column header.

 

Sort rows of a column

Click the up/down arrow icons towards the right of a column header to sort the grid rows in ascending order of content in that column. Click again to reverse the order. Click one more time to disable the sort for the column.

 

Select a row to display the Properties Pane of the object

A single click on any cell selects the corresponding row and shows its details in the Properties Pane, allowing you to edit the properties in the Properties Pane, just as you would in the ER diagram or Object Browser.

 

 

Edit directly in the grid

Some cells can be edited directly in the grid without opening the Properties Pane. Editable cells are noticeable by the blue triangle in the bottom-right corner of the cell. Double-click the cell to switch it to edit mode, type your text, then press Enter or click outside the cell to save. Press Escape to cancel.

 

 

Note: currently, inline editing is available on some text area properties, as e.g. the Description and the Comments property. More properties editing will be enabled in upcoming releases.

 

Filter

Use the search field above the grid to restrict the rows to those matching your text. This is a global search. By default, it searches across the columns checked in the selector: any row that contains your text in any of the selected columns stays visible.

 

 

 

You can also restrict the search to a specific column. Select the column(s) you want to search on, the the value you are searching for, then the filter applies only to those column(s).

 

 

Note: for very large grids, the search across all selected columns can become too heavy for the engine. The limit is based on the number of cells to search, that is the number of rows multiplied by the number of searched columns. When the total number of cells exceeds 500,000 cells, the global search becomes a targeted search: you must identify the columns in which you want to search, so that the search stays under the 500k cells limit. In practice, on a very large grid, you should configure a few columns (around four or five -- that would allow for 110+ rows...) so that the search runs on those only. Below the limit, the search applies to all the selected columns.

 

Group

The group by feature regroups the rows under collapsible nodes, based on the values of one or more columns.

 

To group the grid, add a column to the group by field by:

• selecting it in the dropdown

 

 

• or by dragging and dropping a column header into the group-by zone.

 

 

You can group by several columns. The order of the columns defines the grouping hierarchy: the first column is the outer group, and the next columns are nested inside. You can reorder the columns inside the group by field by dragging them. The grouping updates immediately to reflect the new order.

 

Each group node can be expanded or collapsed. The number of rows grouped under a node is indicated between brackets.

 

 

 

You may notice that clicking on a node expands or collapses the nested structure.  If that node is a modeling object, you may wonder how to display the properties for that object.  You simply need to expand the node above to find the modeling object as a simple row, rather than as node.

 

 

 

Model grid specifics

Modeling object column

Because the model grid lists modeling objects of different natures (Containers, Entities, Attributes, etc.), the "Modeling object" column indicates the nature of each row. Currently, the possible values are Container, Entity, and Attribute. View and Relationship will appear once these object types are added to the grid.

 

This column lets you search for a single object type, or group the grid by object type.  For example, if all you wish is to display all the columns in all the tables of a relational model, you would simply filter by Modeling object with value column, and disable the Group by selections.

 

 

Container and Entity columns

Two columns describe where each object belongs in the hierarchy:

• Container: the container that the object belongs to, if any.  For different targets, this label can be schema, database, namespace, keyspace, resource, etc..
• Entity: the entity that the object belongs to, if relevant.  For different targets, this label can be table, collection, node, record, request, etc.

 

Default grouping

By default, the model grid is grouped by Container, then by Entity. This default gives a hierarchical reading of the model: you expand a container, then an entity, then you see its attributes. Each row shows the object name and its Modeling object value. You are free to remove the grouping at any time to get a fully flat view, or to group by other columns.