Barker notation - displaying symbols in entities

[MountainKing]

Hi,

I've just joined the SAP Community Network - apologies if this PowerDesigner question has already been posted (and answered).

I'm trying to build a Logical Data Model using Barker notation, but I'm having some problems with my display preferences. I want the symbols to indicate the PK (#), mandatory attributes (*) and optional attributes (o) to appear on the left-hand side of the entity, then the attribute names and finally their data types and lengths. When I create the entity, this is fine but the moment I go right-click > Format > Content to specify other preferences (usually data types), these symbols move to the right-hand side of the entity.

For example, if the 'Mandatory' box is ticked, a capital M appears on the entity - this is just superfluous and adds clutter in my opinion, so I wouldn't tick it, but playing with this (or any other) setting seems to affect the display of the #, * and o symbols.

The only way I've found so far is to cancel and undo my changes, and even this doesn't always work. Would appreciate any feedback as to where I'm going wrong.

Thanks,

Antony

[GeorgeMcGeachie · Accepted solution]

This is definitely a bug. When I change the visible properties via right-clicking an entity symbol, the Barker ornaments move to the right. If I make changes via Display Preferences, they don't move to the right.

Please report this bug to SAP. In the meantime, here's how to change the displayed properties for one or more symbols, without changing the default preferences for the diagram:

1. select the symbol(s) you want to change
2. access Display Preferences via the Tools menu
3. make your changes and click on <OK>
4. ensure you choose the 'Selected Symbols' open before you click <OK> on the 'Changing Formats' dialogue

[MountainKing · Accepted solution]

Thanks, George - I'll try your suggestion.

Is there a formal way to raise a bug with SAP? I'm guessing that as I work for a PD customer, I would need to provide a customer ID and so forth?

[GeorgeMcGeachie · Accepted solution]

SAP have a portal for raising support cases (support.sap.com/kb-incidents/incident.html).

You should be able to use the S-user id that you use to log in to SCN, assuming that your company's SAP contact has given you the correct privileges. If you have an internal support person, contact them, otherwise ask your procurement team.