Importing data from another PowerDesigner model

Chapter 4 Building Business Process Diagrams

Importing data from another PowerDesigner model

In order to import data from another PowerDesigner model, the source model must be open in the workspace.

Data import

You can import BPM data objects from other PowerDesigner models as follows:

Source model	Object	BPM data
CDM	Data item Entity	Elementary Structured
PDM	Table	Structured
OOM	Class	Structured

If you import an object that has the same name, code and type as an existing data object in the BPM, the existing data object is reused, unless it already has a definition object. In this case, the new data is automatically renamed and linked to the selected object in the source model.

Link import

A PDM reference between two tables is imported as a parent/child relationship between the two imported data. The child table is imported as a structured data object, and the parent table as a structured sub-data object.

Foreign key column objects are not imported because they are created by the PDM reference between tables.

Sub-data import

When an entity, a table or a class object is imported as a data object, their data items, columns or attributes are automatically imported as sub-data and linked to their parent structured data.

To import data from another PowerDesigner model:

Select Tools→Data Import Wizard to open the Data Import Wizard, which list all the models and packages open in the workspace from which you can import data.

Select the source model or package from which you want to import data and click Next to go to a data selection page, which lists all the data available to import.

Select the data to import, and then click Finish to begin the data import.

The data is imported into the BPM. The result of the import is displayed in the Output window. You can view in the Browser the BPM and its new objects: