Hierarchy Diagram

Using Hierarchy Diagrams

The ‘Hierarchy Diagram’ is a type of hierarchical organizational chart used in Innoslate as a means of visualizing up to ten levels of decomposition of entities top-down.

The ‘Hierarchy Diagram’ is not comprised of special diagram constructs. In fact, a ‘Hierarchy Diagram’ can be generated by Innoslate on the fly based on the current contents of your project’s database. The ‘Hierarchy Diagram’ is built using entities in the database of any specific class and their decomposed by/decomposes relationships. The entities display as rounded blocks containing the number and name of the entity and their decomposed by/decomposes relationships create the hierarchical structure displayed as arrow lines.

Creating Hierarchy Diagrams

Within the ‘Diagrams Dashboard,’ users can create a new diagram by clicking the ‘ Create Diagram’ button in the top right corner of the page.

Clicking the ‘Create Diagram’ button will open the Create Diagram dialog where you will be directed through the process of creating a new diagram.

Create a Hierarchy Diagram

1. Choose Which Type of Diagram to Create
   In step 1, select ‘Hierarchy Diagram,’ under ‘General,’ as your diagram type.
   
   

    

   Next, you’ll be asked to “Select which class of entity to use as the root entity” of your new ‘Hierarchy Diagram.’

   
   

   Click the ‘Next’ button.

   
2. Specify New Root Action Information
   In step 2, you will be prompted to input a diagram ‘Name,’ ‘Number’ (optional), and ‘Description’ (optional). Then, click the ‘Finish’ button to save and automatically open your new ‘Hierarchy Diagram,’ where you can begin adding and removing entities.
   
   

Viewing Hierarchy Diagrams

In Innoslate, you can view a ‘Hierarchy Diagram’ from wherever the ‘Open’ drop-down menu is available on the toolbar (Entity View, Database View, within a Document, within a Diagram, within a Test Suite).

View a Hierarchy Chart

1. Locate and click the ‘Open’ drop-down menu in the toolbar. Select ‘Hierarchy Diagram.’
          
2. This will navigate you to view a ‘Hierarchy Diagram,’ where you can begin adding and removing entities. Click the ‘Save’ button located on the toolbar to persist your changes to your project’s database.

Adding an Entity

An entity can be added to a ‘Hierarchy Diagram’ via drag-and-drop.

1. Within a ‘Hierarchy Diagram,’ click the ‘Action’ icon in the ‘New’ tab of the left sidebar and continue to hold down the left mouse button.
   
   
   
   
2. Drag the ‘Action’ icon over the top of the entity of your choice, which will become the parent action.
   
   
   
   
3. When the entity block highlights green, release the left mouse button to drop the new child entity and add it to the diagram.
   
   

    

   Notice the entity block stays selected once it has been dropped. Since it is selected, the toolbar changes to include buttons for functions that can be used on the construct. The sidebar also changes to include additional ‘Metadata,’ ‘Attributes’ and ‘Relationships’ tabs.

4. Once added to the diagram, enter a meaningful ‘Name’ for your new entity via the ‘Attributes’ tab of the left sidebar (focused automatically for convenience).
   
   
   
   
5. Click the ‘Save’ button located on the toolbar to persist your changes to your project’s database.
   
   

* Note: The above process describes using the ‘New’ tab of the left sidebar, which automatically generates a new entity to represent each new block. If you would like to reuse existing entities from your database to represent a new block, use the ‘Existing’ tab instead.

Removing an Entity

An entity can be easily removed from a ‘Hierarchy Diagram.’

1. Within a ‘Hierarchy Diagram,’ select the entity you wish to remove. This will make the toolbar appear with applicable functions which can be used on the selected entity.
   
   
2. Click the  ‘Remove’ button to remove the entity from the diagram (as the default action).
   
   

   * Note: The  ‘Remove’ button also includes a drop-down menu where you can select ‘Delete from Database’ or the default option of ‘Remove from Diagram.’