Part I. Getting started

Part II. UML modeling

Part III. Project glossary

Part IV. BPMN toolset

Part V. Project management

Part VI. Modeling toolset

Part VII. ArchiMate tools

Part VIII. Team collaboration

Part IX. Code engineering

Part X. Database design and engineering

Part XI. Advanced modeling toolset

Part XII. Document production

Part XIII. Business modeling

Part XIV. Business rule

Part XV. Agile development

Part XVI. Wireframe

Part XVII. Impact analysis

Part XVIII. CMMN toolset

Part XIX. SoaML modeling

Part XX. Design animation

Part XXI. IDE Integration

Part XXII. Interoperability and integration

Part XXIII. Process simulation

Part XXIV. Zachman and BMM

Part XXV. Appendix A - Application Options

Part XXVI. Appendix B - Project Options

Part XXVII. Appendix C

 

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:

Original version of a business process
Original version of a business process

You can create a Traditional Chinese nickname and rename the model elements:

Chinese version of a business process
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:

Generate SQL with original name
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

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