References define the relationship between components. Well-defined references provide clarity into how elements of your organization are tied together and form the basis for uncovering insights into making organizational improvements.

References have a source component and a target component. In the example below, the Person component and the Organizational Unit component are connected together with the Belongs To reference — indicating that, in other words, that a person belongs to an organizational unit.

A component can have multiple source references and destination references — both of which are necessary for creating complex metamodels. For example, in the Application Rationalization metamodel, the Application component has 5 incoming and 5 outgoing references.

By default, Ardoq has a generic built-in reference type called an implicit reference. It is intended to specify that two components are related in some way, but it doesn't make their relationship explicit. We don't recommend using implicit references unless you intend to make the reference explicit later.

Instead, we recommend creating re-usable references that clearly establish a relationship between components. For example:

Once a reference type is created, it can be re-used throughout the workspace it was created in.

There are a number of ways to create references between components within Ardoq:

By hovering over the source component you want to start the reference from, you will see a "link" icon showing on the right side. Click it once (do not hold it), and drag it to the component you want to target , then click again.

If you need to open a Parent to access child components after you clicked on the source component, just right-click.

This will open the Reference tab on the right side. You can then choose the right reference and additional information if necessary.

This is how you create multiple references at once:

As you might be using the Grid Editor to create new components, you can also use this for creating references.

First, open your Grid Editor at the bottom of the page:

Choose References and adjust window:

Start creating new references or change existing ones in the Grid Editor by choosing Target components and Source. As with most functions in Ardoq, be aware that what you see and can choose from is context-sensitive. You will only see the components from the workspace you are standing in, and the level of components that you are standing in.

Choose Workspace level for all Parents, and the correct Parent for the underlying children components:

Using the View Dependency Matrix For Making References

First, choose the View "Dependency Matrix", and open up the Workspace containing your Source Component(s). Then choose the Targets component(s) Workspace. The Target Workspace has to be opened as well.

Choose the kind of Reference you wish to create by clicking on the "On cell click" and choose between references already created for the Source Workspace. You will now be creating that reference when you click. The component left side will be the Source and the component showing at the top will be the Target.

If you clicked the wrong field, just right-click and choose Delete Reference.