Data Model Edition

ITSM Designer - Combodo's customers only

The “Classes” tab of the ITSM Designer screen manages the Data Model. In this tab you can manage the classes (add or remove classes, add or remove fields) and the relations between them (add/remove relations, add/remove fields on n:n relations).

The list on the left of the screen provides two ways for navigating in the list of classes: either gouped by “Module” or by alphabetical order.

When selecting a module, an overview of all the classes inside this module and their hierarchy (in terms of inheritance) is displayed.

The overview is automatically arranged by the ITSM Designer, but you can re-arrange it to better fit your needs:

• Click and drag in the blue background of the “Overview” pane to scroll the view
• Use the wheel of the mouse to zoom in/out
• Click and drag on a class to move the class and all its subclasses in the overview

The modifications of the layout of the “Overview” are automatically saved by the ITSM Designer.

To edit a class, select it from the list in the left pane or right-click on it in the “Overview” pane and select “Edit Class…” in the popup menu.

The details of a class is displayed as follows:

The “Schema” tab displays the schema of the class (i.e. its fields) and relations for the current class. The right pane displays the properties of the selected element. As for the “Overview”, the display is automatically arranged by the ITSM Designer, but you can adjust the presentation of the schema:

• Click and drag in the blue background of the “Overview” pane to scroll the view
• Use the wheel of the mouse to zoom in/out
• Click and drag on a class to move the class in the schema

The modifications to the “Schema” view are automatically saved by the ITSM Designer.

Modify the properties of the class by using the form on the right pane. Once a modification is applied, the view is refreshed and the performed modification is recorded in the “Undo history”.

To edit the properties of a field, select the field by clicking on it in the “Schema” view:

Modify the properties of the selected field by using the form on the right pane. Once a modification is applied, the view is refreshed and the modification is recorded in the “Undo history”.

Once a class or field has been selected, additional actions are available via the toolbar buttons:

Icon	Label	Action
	Undo	Click on the button to undo the previous operation, or click on the triangle to select the operations to undo. The button is grayed in case undoing is not allowed (e.g. after a move to production)
	Test	Tests the latest revision to the active instance. This button is shown only if the active instance has been given the role 'Production and Test'
	Add Class	Creates a new class of object.
	Remove Class	Deletes the current class of objects (a confirmation dialog will be displayed).
	Add Field	Adds a field to the current class
	Remove Field	Removes the currently selected field from the current class (a confirmation dialog will be displayed).
	Add Relation	Adds a relation (n:1, 1:n or n:n) between the current class and another class of object.
	Remove Relation	Removes the currently selected relation
	Add Relation Field	Adds a field on the n:n relation currently selected.
	Remove Relation Field	Removes the curently selected field from the n:n relation.

To create a new class, click on the toolbar button. The following dialog box is displayed:

Where:

• Name is the name of the class, as managed internally by the application. This name must be unique.
• Label is the localized label for this class, as it will appear in the user interface.
• Description is an optional description providing more information about the purpose of this class. This field is purely informational.
• Derived From is the parent class of the new class. The new class inherits all the fields from its parent.
• Abstract determines if the class can be instanciated or not
• Icon is the icon depicting the class. Pick an icon from the list or use the “+” button to upload a new one.
  • The icon should be 64×64 (before 3.0.0: 48×48 pixels only). Uploaded images are resized if needed.
  • The icon should have a transparent background. For better results use a PNG24 image with a smooth alpha channel for the transparency of the background.
  • For 3.0, SVG format can be used and in that case 240px is fine.
• Database Table is the name of table in the database where to store the fields specific to this class. Must be unique.
• Module determines in which module the class will be declared. Note: If the parent class is an actual class defined in a module of the datamodel (i.e. if the parent class is neither cmdbAdbtractObject, nor DBObject, nor CMDBObject), the value for the module is ignored, it will be forced to the name of the module in which the parent class is defined. This prevents dependency problems in the resulting datamodel.
• Categories determines if the class is visible in the application, if it can be searched in the global search, etc.The standard values for Categories are:
  • bizmodel: this is the most common value. Classes in this category can appear in the iTop user interface, can be imported in CSV and are subject to the user rights management defined by the Profiles.
  • searchable: classes in this category are indexed by the global search. This used for all usual classes.
  • application: this value is used for classes used internally by the application. Only administrators can import (via the CSV import) objects of such classes. Examples of classes from the application category are Triggers and Actions used by the notification mechanism.
  • addon/authentication: used by the authentication mechanism. Do not use this category unless you known what you are doing!

To delete the currently selected class, click on the toolbar button. The following dialog box is displayed:

The confirmation dialog shows the impact of the deletion of the class: all foreign keys pointing to the deleted class will be deleted as well, and as a consequence all External Fields based on the deleted foreign keys will be deleted as well.

To create a new field in the currently selected class, click on the toolbar button. the following dialog box is displayed:

• The name of the field is the actual “code” to be used for identifying the field in the application. This name must be unique for all the classes of the same “branch” (i.e. with the same ancestor class). Note: the name of a new field must be entered in lowercase for consistency with the iTop datamodel.
• The label is the actual display label of the field. It depends on the language of the interface.
• The SQL property determines the name of the SQL column used to store the value of the field in the database. This name must be unique for all the classes of the same “branch” (i.e. with the same ancestor class)
• The description (optional) provides more information about the purpose of the field. This is purely informational.
• The type determines the format and the behavior of the field:

The following types of fields are available:

The last two lines are common to all types of fields; they determine if the field will be added to the “presentation” of the object and if these modifications need to be propagated to the child (derived) classes.

The other properties are specific to the type of field.

To delete the currently selected field, click on the toolbar button. the following dialog box is displayed:

The confirmation dialog shows the impact of the deletion of the field: any External Field referencing the field to be deleted will be deleted as well.

To create a new relation with the currently selected class, click on the toolbar button. the following dialog box is displayed:

There are three different types of relations:

A foreign key has the following properties:

A hierarchical key has the following properties:

A many to many relation has the following properties:

A one to many relation has the following properties:

Behavior depending on the edit mode value:

To delete the currently selected relation , click on the toolbar button. the following dialog box is displayed:

The confirmation dialog shows the impact of the deletion of the relation. Depending on the type of relation deleted some other fields (or classes) may be impacted.

To manage the presentation of a given class, select the “Presentation” tab. Then click on the desired style of presentation to edit “List”, “Details” or “Search Form” by clicking on it in the center pane.

Drag and drop the fields to arrange them inside the presentation or from/to the right pane to add/remove them from the presentation.

Clicking on the small plus (“+”) icon in the “Details” presentation creates a new column in which fields can be dropped. Similarly the small minus (“-”) icon is used to completely remove a column (except the first column which cannot be removed). When column is removed, all the fields previously located in this column are moved back to the “bucket” of available fields in the right pane.

A right-click inside the presentation, displays a popup menu with two choices: “Insert fieldset…” and “Remove field”.

If you select “Insert fieldset…” you will be prompted for the code and the localized label of this new fieldset:

The fieldset is then created, enclosing the selected field. You can right click-again on the fieldset to edit its properties or delete it.

When a fieldset is removed, all the fields previously located inside this fieldset are moved back to the “bucket” of available fields in the right pane.