Onboarding Process Tutorial 1: EDM Configuration

Introduction

Designing a solid data structure is one of the first and most important steps in building any application. In this blog post, we'll walk through how to create an Entity Data Model (EDM) using codbex Rhea with a simple, real-world sample project called Sample Employee Onboarding Process. Whether you're new to data modeling or just looking to brush up your skills, this guide will help you understand how entities, relationships, and data types come together to form the foundation of your application's data layer. By the end, you'll have a working example you can build on and adapt to your own projects.

Create a New Project

Create a new project and name it employee-onboarding.

Right-click on Project → New → Entity Data Model and name it employee-onboarding.edm.

Navigations

Add Employees, Tasks and EmployeeOnboarding navigations

Entities

1. Department Entity

Create an entity
Right-click on the entity and open Properties
In the General section: - Set Name to Department - Set Type to Setting Entity

Add text field for Name, make it required and set its length to be 100 characters

2. Onboarding Status Entity

Create an entity and set its name to Onboarding Status
Right-click on the entity and open Properties
In the General section: - Set Type to Setting Entity
Add text field for Name, make it required and set its length to be 30 characters

3. Employee Entity

Add Perspective for Employee this way

Create an entity and set its name to Employee
Right-click on the entity and open Properties
In the User Interface section: - Set Layout type to Manage Master Entity - Choose the already defined perspective - Employee

Add text field for Name, make it required and set its length to be 100 characters
Add field for Email, make it required and set its length to be 150 characters
Right-click on the entity and open field Properties
In the User Interface section:
- Choose Widget type to be e-mail

Add field for StartDate and make it required
Right-click on the entity and open field Properties
In the Data section:
- Choose Data type to be DATE
In the User Interface section:
- Choose Widget type to be Date picker

Add relationship to Department and make it required

Configuration for Department field

From User Interface view, choose:
- Dropdown for widget type
- Id for dropdown key
- Name for dropdown value
Add relationship to Onboarding Status and make it required

Configuration for Onboarding Status field

From User Interface view, choose:
- Dropdown for widget type
- Id for dropdown key
- Name for dropdown value

4. Onboarding Task Entity

Add Perspective for Onboarding Task
Create an entity and set its name to Onboarding Task
Right-click on the entity and open Properties
In the User Interface section: - Set Layout type to Manage Master Entity - Choose the already defined perspective - Onboarding Task
Add relationship to Employee and make it required

Configuration for Employee field

From User Interface view, choose:
- Dropdown for widget type
- Id for dropdown key
- Name for dropdown value
Add relationship to Employee, set field name to be Assignee and make it required

Configuration for Assignee field

From User Interface view, choose:
- Dropdown for widget type
- Id for dropdown key
- Name for dropdown value
Add relationship to Onboarding Status, set field name to be Status and make it required

Configuration for Status field

From User Interface view, choose:
- Dropdown for widget type
- Id for dropdown key
- Name for dropdown value
Add field for CompletedAt and make it required
Right-click on the entity and open field Properties
In the Data section:
- Choose Data type to be DATE
In the User Interface section:
- Choose Widget type to be Date picker

Final EDM

Right-click on EDM file → Generate and choose Entity Data to JSON Transformer Model.

Right-click on .model file, choose Application - Full stack, fill fields in the next window with your details, and click Generate.

Addind Data

Right-click on Project → New → Folder and name it data.
Right-click on data → New → CSVFile and name it onboarding-task-status.csv.
Open it and paste the following code:

ONBOARDINGSTATUS_ID,ONBOARDINGSTATUS_NAME
1,Pending
2,In Progress
3,Completed

Right-click on data → New → CSV Import Model and name it employee-onboarding.csvim.
Open it and paste the following code

{
  "files": [
    {
      "table": "CODBEX_ONBOARDINGSTATUS",
      "schema": "PUBLIC",
      "file": "/employee-onboarding/data/onboarding-task-status.csv",
      "header": true,
      "useHeaderNames": true,
      "delimField": ",",
      "delimEnclosing": "'",
      "distinguishEmptyFromNull": true,
      "version": ""
    }
  ]
}

Publishing

Publish the project
Open Dashboard and now you can see the application

Adding to GitHub

Open the Git perspective.
Right-click your project and select Share.
Enter the required details and click Share
Your project is now shared to GitHub

Conclusion

Ready to build your own? Click here to learn more or access the Employee Onboarding Sample App. By following this guide, you've taken the first steps in building a well-structured Entity Data Model using codbex Rhea. Through the Sample Employee Onboarding Process, we've demonstrated how to define entities, set up relationships, and create a model that accurately represents your data. Whether you're scaling this up for a larger system or just experimenting to learn, this foundation will serve you well in any project. Keep exploring, keep modeling—and don’t forget, a well-designed data model is the backbone of a successful application.

Other blogs

Onboarding Process Tutorial 1: EDM Configuration ​

Introduction ​

Create a New Project ​

Navigations ​

Entities ​

1. Department Entity ​

2. Onboarding Status Entity ​

3. Employee Entity ​

4. Onboarding Task Entity ​

Final EDM ​

Addind Data ​

Publishing ​

Adding to GitHub ​

Conclusion ​