Tips and tricks
The following tips and tricks may be useful to quickly become a Hackolade power user!
Where does the name Hackolade come from?
;-) Hackolade is derived from a pun in French. We're quite focused on JSON, to say the least, and in French a {curly bracket} is called an "accolade". It is a "double entendre" as it also has the primary meaning "acknowledgment of merit". So we thought it was creative to play with the words and have a distinctive trademark brand for which the .com domain was available. This name is obviously tongue-in-cheek. Just like a hackathon has a positive connotation and does not imply breaching security or privacy, Hackolade conveys a positive message of innovative and clever data quality.
What is the End-of-Life (EOL) policy for Hackolade Studio?
Hackolade continues to provide support for version X for one calendar year after the release date of major version X+1, provided that you are current with maintenance fees for your perpetual license key, or with your subscription.
Release the license key from one computer to move to another
If you need to move your license key to another computer, you first need to release it on the PC where your key is currently validated. The procedure is also detailed in this page.
To do so, go to the option Help > License Status, and click the button "Release key"':
and click the Send button. This will free up the key on our license server.
Make sure to copy the license key and store it (or find your original license key confirmation email) as you will need it to activate on the other computer where you will want to use Hackolade.
As of this moment, you can no longer use Hackolade on the original computer, unless you you re-register it.
Go to the other computer where you want to use Hackolade and validate your license key using the instructions above '2. Validate your license key'
TIP: if your company has many licenses, your administrator may require that you enter your name in the Identifier (optional) field. You will find more details in this page.
TIP: if you're a license administrator, you may want to track who's using your licenses. You may do so by accessing the URL https://quicklicensemanager.com/hackolade/QlmCustomerSite/qlmlicenseinfo.aspx
To have identification information appear in the Computer Name column, users need to go to Help > Software Key Validation, then release their key, copy it to their clipboard, then fill in the identifier (name or whatever other standard you decide), paste the key, and validate again.
The identifier entered in the this screen will appear in the web page:
Workspace
TIP: you may create extra space on your desktop by sliding the Object Browser or Properties panes with this control appearing between the panes. You may also toggle the appearance of these panes in the View menu, or by double-clicking on the separation control.
TIP: to go back to the Welcome Page, simply choose View > Welcome Page. You may close the page, with the Close button on the lower right.
TIP: in any of the Comments dialogs, you may press the timestamp button to log data and time for your entries.
TIP: you many start multiple instances of Hackolade Studio on the same machine session, so as to work on multiple models simultaneously. You may also merge 2 Hackolade models, or combine elements from another model with copy/paste from one model in one application instance, to the other model in the second application instance. On Windows, right-click on the Hackolade icon in the toolbar then choose Hackolade:
On Mac/Linux, this is done with the command: open -n /Applications/Hackolade.app/
Running multiple instances on the same PC does not require additional license seats.
TIP: using the mouse wheel in both the ER Diagram and the hierarchical schema view:
-- up/down: move up or down
-- shift+up/down: move left or right
-- ctrl+up/down: zoom in or zoom out
Object Browser
TIP: it is very convenient to use the search for any string of text to locate one or multiple objects in the model
TIP: from the Object Browser, simply click on an attribute, and the central pane will switch to its location in the hierarchical schema view, with all the details in the Properties Pane.
TIP: you may add attributes from the Object Browser with a right-click to display a contextual submenu.
ERD
TIP: you may automatically resize an entity shape in the Entity Relationship Diagram view by clicking the double-sided arrow icon at the top right corner of the shape
TIP: you may change the color of a shape title and frame by choosing from a palette that you can access by clicking the eye-dropper icon just to the left of the auto-resize icon.
TIP: if you want to get the maximum level of zoom possible while showing all shapes in your diagram, simply click on the double-sided arrow icon in the application toolbar.
TIP: after you've created shapes and relationships in the ER diagram, you may want to let Hackolade perform a basic distribution of the shapes according to an orthogonal formula, by choosing this grid-like icon in the toolbar..
TIP: to select multiple shapes, keep the Ctrl/Cmd key pressed. Then you can move, align, distribute, etc...
TIP: when you select 2 or more shapes, these shape alignment toolbar icons become active:
You may also do a right-click and access the same functions through the contextual menu.
TIP: when you select 3 or more shapes in line, you may distribute them evenly with these toolbar control icons:
TIP: you may change the order of the fields/attributes within an entity with these control icons: