Naming and Datatype Standards › The Model Naming Options Dialog

The Model Naming Options Dialog

There are a wide-range of naming standard features that can help you develop new standards or implement existing standards in your modeling environment. To manage naming standards, use the features available in the Model Naming Options dialog, and the Naming Standards Editor.

Click Model Naming Options on the Actions menu to open the Model Naming Options dialog.

You use the features in this dialog to define the naming standards for the current data model. Some of the available features are described below.

Specifying Case and Length Rules

You specify the case and length rules for each model type on both the Logical and Physical tabs in the Model Naming Options dialog.

Default settings are applied. However if you do specify the case and length for an object, when you close the Model Naming Options dialog, all object names are immediately changed to match your preferences.

Mapping Logical and Physical Names

You set name mapping preferences on the Name Mapping tab. By default, a macro is applied to define the object name, but you can replace the default macro by opening the macro toolbox. You can also specify that the attached glossary file (.nsm) be the source of the name and abbreviation for some objects.

You can also supply a Prefix and/or a Suffix to the default object name and define how special characters and spaces in a logical name map to a physical name.

Specifying Duplicate Name Rules

On the Duplicate Names tab, you can specify your preferences for how duplicate entity and table names are handled in a model. The preference options include:

Allow

Permits duplicate names.

Rename

Renames the duplicate name by appending to the end of the name a forward-slash to indicate that the name has been used in the model and a number to indicate how many times (for example, MOVIE_COPY/2).

Ask

Gives you the opportunity to keep the duplicate name or enter another name.

Disallow

Requires you to change the duplicate name to a unique name.

Attaching a Naming Standards File

On the General tab, you can specify the name of the Naming Standards file that you want to attach to this model.

When you attach a naming standards file to a data model, the standards and conventions defined in the file are automatically applied. You can also use the file to check compliance of the names of objects in the model, which is similar to a spell checker in a word processing application. The naming standards file is used as a dictionary and compares the names in the data model to the names in the dictionary. When it finds a discrepancy, you decide whether to ignore or replace the non-compliant name.