Conceptual Data Model mappings

Chapter 12 Creating Mappings

Conceptual Data Model mappings

In a Conceptual Data Model (CDM), you can create the following types of mappings to express a simple correspondence between model objects:

Conceptual to object mapping between CDM entities and OOM classes.
Conceptual to conceptual mapping between CDM entities and the entities of another CDM.

Both mapping types help to make object relationships clearer.

The following table shows all the allowed mappings with CDM objects:

Target CDM object	Source OOM object	Source CDM object
Entity	Class	Entity, association, inheritance
Entity attribute	Class attribute	Entity attribute, association attribute, inheritance attribute
Association/relationship	Association	Entity, association, inheritance, relationship
Association attribute	Association attribute	Association attribute, entity attribute, inheritance attribute
Inheritance	Class	Entity, association, inheritance
Inheritance attribute	Class attribute	Inheritance attribute, entity attribute, association attribute
Data item	—	Data item

Mapping inheritances

You can map inheritances with CDM objects only when its child entities are not generated, i.e. when the "Generate children" option is deselected in the Generation tab of the inheritance property sheet.

For more information about inheritances, see section "Inheritances" in the Building a Conceptual Data Model chapter in the Data Modeling guide.