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How to Derive Data Dictionary from Textual Analysis?

In Visual Paradigm, there is a glossary grid which act as a data dictionary for recording important terms that appear in project. In this tutorial, we will start from filling in a problem description with the textual analysis tool, and extract terms from the description. Finally, we will generate a PDF report to list the terms and show the problem description.

Compatible edition(s): Enterprise, Professional, Standard, Modeler

  • January 4, 2010
  • Views: 38,398
  • PDF

  1. Download otv.txt. You can also find this file at the bottom of this tutorial.
  2. Open the downloaded file and read it once. The content is as below. It describes the operations of company OTV (Online Television).
    Problem statement
  3. Create a new project by selecting Project > New from the application toolbar. In the New Project window, enter OTV as project name and click Create Blank Project.
  4. Select Diagram > New from the application toolbar.
  5. In the New Diagram window, select Textual Analysis and click Next. Leave the diagram name unchanged and click OK to create a Textual Analysis.
    New Textual Analysis
  6. Click on the Import File button above the textual analysis editor.
    Import file
  7. Select the downloaded file otv.txt. You have to select Text Documents as file type in the file chooser in order to see the file. By importing the file you should see the problem description appear in the textual analysis editor.
    Problem statement imported
  8. Start identifying the key terms from the problem description. Right-click on the first keyword OTV and select Add "OTV" to Glossary from the popup menu.
    Identify term
  9. You should see a message appears on the status bar, telling you that the term OTV has been added into the glossary grid. Click on the link of glossary grid to go there. If you have missed that, do not worry. You can open the glossary grid by selecting Modeling > Glossary > Glossary Grid from the application toolbar.
    Open glossary grid
  10. Glossary grid is where glossary terms are listed. You can check the terms and their definitions in the grid. You can also create and manage terms via the related function buttons on the toolbar at the top of the glossary grid. Now, describe the term OTV. Right-click on the term and select Open Term Editor from the popup menu.
    Open term editor
  11. Enter the definition of term in the Definition field: A company which delivers both paid and free online broadcasting services..
    Entered term definition
  12. We can use different texts (via aliases) to refer to the same term. This helps to avoid redundancy in creating multiple terms carrying the same meaning. Let's add an alias called "Online Television". Click Add on the right in the Aliases section (which is located at the top of the term editor).
    Add alias
  13. Enter Online Television in the input window and confirm. Online Television is now an alias of the term OTV.
    Alias added
  14. Add another alias Online TV.
    Aliases added
  15. Go back to the glossary grid by selecting Modeling > Glossary > Glossary Grid from the application toolbar. You can see the aliases and description (i.e. definition) as well.
    Term in glossary grid
  16. Now, identify the following terms from textual analysis editor:
    Term Aliases Documentation
    general member general membership The person who own the free membership, and is allowed to watch free programs
    archived TV programs archived programs The program that was firstly broadcast for at least 3 months
    premium member premium membership The person who own the premium membership, and is allowed to watch both free and paid programs
    video panel video pane The panel for playing a program
    discussion topic   Opinion posted by premium members, which talks about the program
    monthly newsletters newsletters An email to send to user every month, to give information on the company, as well as to list the recommend programs next month
    administrators admin The person who owns the right to manage the upload and removal of programs, and the memberships
    program schedule program timetable The timetable of TV programs
    update the program   To update the list of programs on the programs page
    archive programs   To mark a program as archived
    monitor the delivery of newsletter   To make sure the newsletter are delivered. Failure delivery should be checked, and a re-send action should be taken.

    Up to now, the glossary is completed:
    Glossary updated
  17. Open the textual analysis, we can see that those terms are highlighted.
    Textual Analysis done
  18. Let's export the glossary grid as a document. Select Tools > Doc. Composer... from the application toolbar
  19. Click on Build Doc from Scratch.
    Select 'Build from Scratch'
  20. You are presented the Diagram Navigator, Template Pane and an empty document (editor). Let's create content in the document. Select the glossary grid in Diagram Navigator. Then, drag the Grid Diagram template out from the Template Pane and release it on the document to create content. You should see a table of glossary terms created in the document.
    Create content in Doc. Composer
  21. Click on Export > Word Document... at the top right of Doc. Composer.
    To export Word document
  22. In the Export Word Doc. window, provide the output path of the .docx file to be exported and then click Export at bottom right.
    Export Word Doc window
    Open the Word file to take a look. You should see the glossary terms listed in the document.
    Exported Word document
  23. Save the project. This is the end of the tutorial.



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