Relationship Definitions

A relationship definition is, for a given relationship family, a rule that specifies which two entity families are related, which family is the predecessor, which family is the successor, and the cardinality of each.

By setting up relationship definitions, you can define the various types and levels of connections that exist between entities. For example, a piece of equipment might be related to items such as:

The location that contains it.
The people who inspect and maintain it.
The inspection and repair events performed on it.
The workflows in which it participates.

Defining, tracking, and analyzing the relationships between entities is one of the most powerful tools in Meridium Enterprise APM. After you have associated entity families with one another using relationship definitions, you can create rules that are based on those relationships. In this way, individual entities, each stored separately within the database can interact with, use information from, and even be updated based on changes made to other, related entities.

When deciding how many relationships to create, remember that too many relationships can be confusing to users and could create unnecessary system overhead. Too few relationships, on the other hand, will prevent you from defining them specifically enough to be useful to the end user.