The Arches Designer provides a comprehensive set of tools for designing the structure of your database, the details of your data entry forms, and how data are presented in reports. To begin this process, you'll need to become familiar two very important concepts:
Resource Models - Resource Models are top-level categories for Resources in your database. When creating new Resources, a data entry user must decide which Resource Model to use, thereby defining what information is collected for the Resource. The entire Arches Designer exists to facilitate the creation and customization of Resource Models.
Branches - Branches are building blocks that aid in the creation of Resource Models. When you add a Branch to a Resource Model, its contents are copied into the Resource Model. This allows you to further customize the Resource Model while leaving the original Branch unaltered.
Now that you have an idea of what Branches and Resource Models are, you're ready to learn more about the components they are made of.
A Graph is a visual model that defines the set of attributes for either a Branch or a Resource Model. The smallest component of a Graph is a Node, which either defines a data attribute or serves as an intermediary between other Nodes. A second level of organization is created by Nodegroups, each of which is a collection of one or more Nodes.
Cards are used to configure the data entry representation of a Branch's Graph; they define how information will be collected for each Nodegroup. In some cases a complex Branch may have multiple Cards aggregated into a Card Container. However, Card Containers function just like Cards do, so it may be easiest to think of each Branch as having one Card, while each Resource Model will have as many Cards as Branches that have been added to it.
Only Resource Models have Menus. Menus are groupings of Cards associated with a given Resource Model. They allow for an organized, thematic approach to data entry.
Only Resource Models have Reports. Reports allow you to control how the attributes within a Resource Model will be presented to the public.
Only Resource Models have Functions. Functions are behind-the-scenes operations that are run on some user-initiated activity. Examples might be: calculate a value administrative area based on resource geometry location, or dynamically concatenate name and name type into a single string when viewing a report.
Now consider what happens when a Branch is added to a Resource Model. Its component parts are copied into the Resource Model, and in the Resource Model you will add the Cards to Menus to organize the data entry process.
Note that you can further edit a Resource Model's Graph and Cards after the Branch has been added, and these changes will be reflected in the Menus.
To jump right in and begin learning how to make Resource Models, check out the tutorial section of the full Arches user documentation. Remember that while using any of the Arches Designer pages you can use click the ? at the top right of the page to get more help.
In many of the Arches Designer tools, the interface is split into three sections, as shown in the image below.
Contents This section gives an overall list of the items you have at your disposal while using the tool. In the Graph Designer, for example, you'll see a list of Nodes, and in the Report Designer a list of Cards.
Manager Generally, this central panel is where the action takes place. You'll configure settings, modify labels, and define permissions here, depending on
which tool you are using.
Preview In many tools, a preview is provided on the right. Where the contents panel will list the items at your disposal, the preview panel will display them as they may show up elsewhere in the app.