Relationship Labels and the Schema.xml

As described in the Relationships topic, when you create a relationship in ArcCatalog, you type a Forward and a Backward label. These labels are seen in ArcMap when you traverse from a parent table to a child table or vice versa. They are also used by DHFC to understand the relationship and where to access data.

Throughout the Relationships topic, it instructs you what labels to type for each relationship. These labels assume you are using the standard Schema.xml provided during your implementation.

For example, there is a relationship for RFCoupler and RFCouplerPort. RFCoupler is the origin (aka parent) and RFCouplerPort is the destination (aka child). When you build the relationship in ArcCatalog, you type the Forward and Backward labels as seen in the following images:

As-Built Relationship

In-Design Relationship

And, if you examine the Schema.xml, you find the Forward labels (SECom.ARCFM.RFCouplerPort and RFCouplerPort) are being used for the in-design and as-built representations of the component, respectively:

<Table CoaxName="RFCouplerData" EsriDesignName="RFCoupler_D" EsriBuiltName="RFCoupler">
	<Relationship CoaxName="RFCouplerPortData" EsriDesignName="SECom.ARCFM.RFCouplerPort" EsriBuiltName="RFCouplerPort" />

The important take away is that the relationship properties in ArcCatalog and the Schema.xml must match for the application to function properly.

Forward or Backward Label

Depending on how the relationship is created in ArcCatalog, sometimes the Forward label is used and sometimes the Backward label is used. It depends on which feature class is acting as the parent (aka origin) and which is acting as the child (aka destination). If in your geodatabase, the relationship exists in a manner “opposite” of what DHFC expects (in other words, the parent and child are reversed to what DHFC expects), then the Backward label is used. By using the Backward label, the Schema.xml understands the direction of the relationship as it exists in ArcCatalog.