Application naming?

[GaryMazzone]

Hi all

I'm working on an application to show mapping information on an SQL Server database (2005 and up).

The app is working (at least mostly at this point). I have a question and want opinions on wording here.

I have a tab on the form that is to show Parent/Child relationships for a table. SI has tested and noted some confusion in the labeling of two datagrids on the tab.


There is a bit of terminology that I don't like... the use of the words "Child"/"Parent" on the 'Referencing Tables' tab seems very dubious to me. I understand why you used those words, but I didn't know which way around it was meant to be until I compared it to the database.. so I can imagine it causing confusion for others too. Unfortunately I can't think of a short alternative, the best I've come up with are "This table refers to"/"Tables that refer to this one".

There is a bit of terminology that I don't like... the use of the words "Child"/"Parent" on the 'Referencing Tables' tab seems very dubious to me. I understand why you used those words, but I didn't know which way around it was meant to be until I compared it to the database.. so I can imagine it causing confusion for others too. Unfortunately I can't think of a short alternative, the best I've come up with are "This table refers to"/"Tables that refer to this one".

I'm looking for opinions on what to call these things, any input would be appreciated.


Oh yea this is aimed at developers with some knowlege of databases.

Thanks Gary

[techgnome]

Not sure why Parent/Child is a problem.... but how about simply "Relations" ... it sounds like that's what you are trying to show, related tables.

-tg

[si_the_geek]

That is what is being shown, but it is separated out in to two sections (which is a good thing), one listing the tables that this one has foreign keys to, and the other listing tables that have foreign keys to this one.

I think the phrase "related tables" is a very good idea for the tab name, but each list has a title too.

I can think of the words 'parent' and 'child' each being used to mean either of the lists, rather than being entirely obvious.

My initial thought was "Foreign keys to other tables" and "Primary keys used as Foreign keys in other tables", but I thought that was a bit long... looking at it again now, it seems clearer than "This table refers to" and "Tables that refer to this one".

[GaryMazzone]

The tab is named Relationships.

I have the first datagrid labled: Child of

The second labeled: Children of

Do you think
Parents of
and
Children of
make more scense

[si_the_geek]

"Child of" and "Children of" mean the same thing (except one is plural), unless you have extra words in there... a quick check shows that it is actually "Child of" and "Children" (the words "Child"/"Parent" are within the grids), which isn't ideal.

"Child of" and "Parent of" would be better than that, but it still uses the words which I think are unclear.

In terms of the titles you can easily use longer phrases (eg: "This table is a child of these tables:"), but for the grid columns you ideally want something short.

I still haven't had any better ideas tho, and I get the feeling that I'm not going to.

[honeybee]

How about Master/Detail or Header/Detail?

.

[GaryMazzone]

For PK/FK relationships?

[honeybee]

Yep. Better still, can you post a screenshot of the form in question?

.

[GaryMazzone]

Sure here it is:

[honeybee]

So in the top grid you display all the tables, and as soon as I click one of the tables in the top grid, you show in the second grid all tables that have a FK relationship with my selected table from top?

If that's how it works, it's really a tough question to use un-ambiguous labels. How about naming the top grid "Select a table to view its dependencies" and the bottom grid as "Tables that depend on the (above) selected table" or "Dependencies of the above table" ?

.

[si_the_geek]

Actually no, the table is selected earlier... both grids show the Foreign Key information (and perhaps more) for the same table.

The top grid shows FK's in this table, and the details of the tables they link to.

The bottom grid shows FK's in other tables that link to this one.


I have a very simple test database with 2 tables: "Names" and "Addresses", and a single-field join between them: "Names" has an FK field names.Address_ID , which links to Addresses.id

The Names table shows this:

The Addresses table shows this:

[honeybee]

How about,

"I link to these tables"

and

"These tables link to me"

?

or

"I depend on the following tables"

and

"Following tables depend on me"

?

Who is the target audience? Any database knowledge required?

.

[si_the_geek]

The target audience is people similar to us, so DB knowledge is expected.