What is nickname?
We all have a name and we may have multiple names such as nicknames or names in other languages. This is the same for your Visual Paradigm project content. While we have applied certain language in naming and describing model elements, we may have the need to model with another language to satisfy the readers of model. The nickname feature is designed to let you define multiple language sets for a model. Further to the definition of nickname, you also can make use of the translate function to translate your work into another language.
One model element can have one Original name and multiple nicknames and the same for description. With nickname, you can define and view different names without affecting the original name of model elements. You can disable the effect of nickname anytime by switching to Original nickname. Features that related to code generation will always use Original name, i.e. changing Class's name in other nicknames will not affect the generated code.
Multi-national team
If you are working in a team and your members are using different languages, you can define model elements name and description in multiple languages. Each member can choose their own language for modeling or view diagrams. The following example demonstrates the Business Process Diagram in English and Traditional Chinese respectively:
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| Original version of a business process |
You can create a Traditional Chinese nickname and rename the model elements:
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| Traditional Chinese version of a business process |
Now, you can switch between English (Original) and Traditional Chinese anytime, or even create more nicknames.
Increasing readability of entity relationship diagram
The name of Entity will be used to generate SQL but Database Management System (DBMS) has many constraints on the name of Entity, Column, etc and each DBMS are different. These constraints include the length of the name, reserved keywords, special characters, etc. They restricted the database designer to create an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) with meaningful names. With nickname, you can freely change any names to create a high readability ERD without affecting the generated SQL. The following diagram displays ERD in nickname but generate SQL in original name:
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| Generate SQL with original name |
Related Resources
The following resources may help you to learn more about the topic discussed in this page.
| Chapter 2. Model element nicknaming | Table of Contents | 2. Configure nickname |
