Setting Diagram Options

The diagram options define how SQL Dependency Tracker adds dependent objects to your diagram.

You can set the diagram options and project options when you add objects to a project.

To display the diagram options after you have opened a project:

on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Diagram tab

To reset your diagram options and project options to the default settings, click Reset.

Dependency levels

When you select objects to add to your project, SQL Dependency Tracker can automatically add dependent objects that:

	the selected objects are used by
	the selected objects use

Similarly, SQL Dependency Tracker can add objects that the dependent objects are used by or use, and so on.

In the example below, the FK_Orders_Customers foreign key is 'used by' the Orders table, which in turn is used by the Employee Sales by Country stored procedure.

You can set your diagram options so that if you choose to add FK_Orders_Customers to your project, only that object is added. To do this, clear the Add objects that the selected objects are used by check box.

If you select the Add objects that the selected objects are used by check box and specify 1 level, for this example SQL Dependency Tracker adds the Orders table to the project because the selected object is used by it. The Orders table is a first-level dependency.

If you select All levels for this option, SQL Dependency Tracker also adds the Employee Sales by Country stored procedure to the project; the Orders table is used by the stored procedure, therefore the Employee Sales by Country stored procedure is a second-level dependency.

In the next example, the Employee Sales by Country stored procedure uses the Order Subtotals view, the Orders table, and the Employees table. The Orders table itself uses the FK_Orders_Customers foreign key.

To set your diagram options so that if you choose to add Employee Sales by Country to your project only that object is added, clear the Add objects that the selected objects uses check box.

If you select the Add objects that the selected objects uses check box and specify 1 level, Order Subtotals, Orders, and Employees are also added to the project. If you specify All levels for this option, FK_Orders_Customers is also added.

Note that SQL Dependency Tracker does not mix uses and used by dependencies when following a particular trail (except in the case of unresolved external references).

Therefore, in the following example, if you add the Orders object to the project, selecting 1 level for Add objects that the selected objects are used by will also add Employee Sales by Country.

However, selecting All levels for this option does not add Order Subtotals or Employees.

External and unresolved references

Unresolved references are references to objects for which SQL Dependency Tracker does not have any information.

Internal unresolved references are references to objects that could not be found within the database schema. For example, this may occur if an extended stored procedure references a column in a table that has subsequently been dropped.

Objects that you choose to add to the project may contain references to objects in a different database. These are called external references. If you have not previously added an object from the different database to the project, the external references are unresolved, because SQL Dependency Tracker does not have access to any information about the objects.

SQL Dependency Tracker can determine only whether a selected object uses an unresolved reference; used by relationships cannot be determined because SQL Dependency Tracker does not have access to this information until the reference is resolved. Therefore, if you choose to include external and unresolved references in your diagram, SQL Dependency Tracker adds the dependent object to the diagram if any selected object uses it, whether or not you have the Add objects that the selected objects use check box selected. This is the only time that SQL Dependency Tracker mixes used by and uses when following a particular dependency trail.

To include objects that are unresolved when you add objects to your project, on the Diagram Options tab, select the Add external and unresolved references check box.

You can then resolve the external references when the diagram has been created.