IEE customer-to-account example

Using the Customer-to-Account example described above, the following illustration shows how the database captures the same relationship. For simplicity, the illustration includes only a few table elements.

The NodeLink table identifies the link between customer and account, using the LeftNodeKey and RightNodeKey. The NodeLinkReason table describes the types of business objects involved in the relationship.

As in the example above, the customer, YourCustomerLLP, has one account: 1000101.

Customer table

Table 599 Customer table

Customer ID	Company name
100	YourCustomer LLP

Account table

Table 600 Account table

NodeKey	NAICS code
100	1000101

Node table

Table 601 Node table

NodeKey	Node type
100	Customer
200	Account

NodeLink

Table 602 Node link

NodeLink key	NodeLink reasonKey	LeftNodeKey	RightNodeKey	Effective date	End date
33333	44444	100	200	1/1/1970	1/1/2070

NodeLink reason

Table 603 Node link reason

NodeLinkReasonKey	ReferenceID
44444	Customer_To_Account

This example shows that the NodeLink table defines the actual relationship between the two NodeKeys. In this scenario, NodeKey 100 represents the customer, YourCustomerLLP, and NodeKey 200 represents the account, 1000101.

The NodeLink table captures the relationship in the LeftNodeKey and RightNodeKey fields. In this scenario, the LeftNodeKey represents the customer (100) and the RightNodeKey represents the account (200).

The NodeLink table doesn't describe the relationship completely. The application or an SQL query cannot easily ascertain, from this table, exactly what types of business objects are being linked. The types of linked business objects is stored in the NodeLinkReason table.