Best Practices

A well-designed data model makes Primentra easier to use and to maintain. These guidelines come from real installations.

Start from the top down

Design the hierarchy from the highest level — Country or Region — down to the most granular one, such as Costcenter or Store. The domain attribute chain then reads in one direction and stays easy to follow.

Keep entities focused

Each entity holds one type of record. Do not combine different concepts, such as customers and suppliers, in one entity. Separate entities each get their own attributes, permissions and integration views.

Use meaningful codes

The Code field identifies each record and is what import, export and domain resolution match on.

• Where the code carries meaning, keep it short and readable: NL for the Netherlands, EUR for the euro.
• Where it does not — customers, orders, assets — turn on Auto-generate Code and let the database number them, with a prefix and padding if you want them to read as CUST-00042.

Reuse reference data

If countries, currencies or status codes are used in several models, create the entity once and turn on Shared across models. Do not copy the entity into each model.

Plan for permissions

Decide who needs access to what before you build the model structure. Permissions cascade from model to entity to attribute, so a well-organized structure makes permissions simple.

Use descriptive names

Model and entity names appear in the sidebar, on the dashboard and in integration views. Business-friendly names reduce confusion for the people who use the grid every day.

Check the model as a whole

Before you call a model finished, open the relations panel on the Models page. It names every entity that is connected to nothing, every reference that crosses a model boundary, and every circular chain. The first two are often correct; a circular chain almost never is.

Related

• Models — the relations panel that checks your work
• Entities — auto-generated codes and the entity toggles
• Domain Attributes & Hierarchies — shared entities and chains
• How They Work Together — how the three levels combine