Essential Guide to Configuring Data Relationships in Bold BI

Introduction  

In modern business intelligence platforms, understanding how different datasets connect is essential for building meaningful dashboards and extracting insights. Data relationships allow you to link tables logically, enabling smooth data exploration and accurate visualizations. Without these connections, data can become siloed, making it difficult to uncover patterns or trends. In this blog, we will discuss what data relationships are, key types of data relationships in Bold BI^®, and how you can configure them in your application in detail.  

What is a data relationship? 

A data relationship refers to the logical connection between data stored in different tables within a database or data model. These relationships define how rows in one table correspond to rows in another, allowing for seamless data integration and more accurate dashboarding. 

Next, let’s discuss why these relationships are important. 

Why data relationships matter in Bold BI

Bold BI is designed to handle complex data models with ease. Configuring relationships in Bold BI offers several advantages: 

• Avoid data duplication: Relationships help eliminate redundant data by linking related tables instead of repeating the same information across multiple datasets. For example, in a student enrollment database, instead of storing department details in every student record, you can link students to a separate department table. 

• Maintain data integrity: By enforcing logical connections between tables, relationships ensure that data remains consistent and accurate. Changes made in one table (e.g., updating a department name) automatically reflect across related records, reducing the risk of errors. 

• Support complex queries: Relationships allow users to perform advanced data operations, such as joining tables to analyze trends across multiple dimensions. This makes it easier to answer questions like “Which students belong to which departments?” or “What products were ordered by which customers?” 

• Organize data logically: Structuring data through relationships mirrors real-world scenarios, making it easier to navigate and understand. For instance, linking students to departments or employees to teams creates a clear and intuitive data model. 

These benefits enable users to analyze data more efficiently, uncover meaningful patterns, and create dashboards that adapt to evolving business needs, all without compromising speed or clarity. Now, let’s explore the key types of relationships supported in Bold BI. 

Types of data relationships supported in Bold BI

Bold BI supports the following types of data relationships: 

• One-to-many (1:M): One record in a table corresponds to multiple records in another. Example: one customer has many orders, or one department has many students. 

• Many-to-one (M:1): Multiple records in a table relate to a single record in another. Example: Many employees belong to one department. 

• Many-to-many (M:M): Multiple records in one table relate to multiple records in another. Example: Students enrolled in multiple courses. 

These relationships eliminate the need for complex joins and improve query performance, making it easier to visualize and interpret data across multiple sources. Now, let’s discuss how to configure them in Bold BI. 

How to configure data relationships in Bold BI dashboards 

In this section, we will explore how to configure each type of data relationship in Bold BI so that you can link tables based on shared fields, define relationship properties, and build dashboards that reflect real-world structures. Let’s get started. 

Configuring a one-to-many relationship 

A one-to-many relationship links one record in a table to multiple records in another. It’s commonly used to model scenarios like one customer having many orders. To set this up correctly, here are the steps you’ll need to follow: 

1. In the data design view, click to turn on the Data Relationship option.
2. Drag and drop two relationship-supporting tables into the data design view. The tables will be displayed as shown in the following figure.
3. Click the Join icon- it’s represented by the overlapping circles located next to the Data Relation toggle in the toolbar at the top of the data source panel. This opens a pop-up window where you can manage relationships, as shown in the following figure.
4. Click New Relationship to begin creating a connection between the selected tables.
5. A pop-up window will appear. In it, choose the From Table and To Table to define the direction of the relationship. Then, select the appropriate key columns from each table that will serve as the linking fields. Finally, set the Cardinality to One-to-Many.
6. Click Save to create the relationship.

This completes the setup, allowing Bold BI to recognize and apply the relationship within your data model. For more details, refer to our documentation. 

Configuring a many-to-one relationship

A many-to-one relationship connects multiple records in one table to a single record in another table. To configure a many-to-one relationship in your data, follow these steps: 

1. In the data design view, turn on the Data Relation toggle.
2. Select and drag the two tables you want to relate into the data design view. These should be the table with multiple related records (the “many” side) and the table with unique reference values (the “one” side).
3. Click the Join icon in the data design view after adding the two tables. A pop-up window will appear, allowing you to manage the relationship settings.
4. Click New Relationship. In the Create Relationship window, choose the From Table (the table with multiple records) and the To Table (the table with unique values). Select the appropriate key columns from each table that define the connection, and then set the Cardinality to Many-to-One.
5. Click Update to save the relationship settings.

This setup ensures that multiple records in one table correctly link to a single record in another, maintaining logical structure and data integrity. To learn more about this, refer to our documentation. 

Configuring many-to-many relationships 

The following procedure uses sample tables and columns that have self-explanatory names. The tables are Students, Departments, and StudentDepartment, which is a bridge table. To configure many-to-many relationships in Bold BI: 

To demonstrate how to configure many-to-many relationships in Bold BI, we’ll use the following sample tables: 

• Students: Contains details about individual students (e.g., StudentID, StudentName). 

• Departments: Contains department information (e.g., DepartmentID, DepartmentName). 

• StudentDepartment: A bridge table that maps students to departments, allowing a student to belong to multiple departments and a department to have multiple students. It typically includes StudentID and DepartmentID as foreign keys. 

This setup represents a many-to-many relationship between Students and Departments, which is common in real-world scenarios like course enrollments, project assignments, or team memberships. 

1. In the data design view, turn on the Data Relation toggle.
2. Import the Students, Departments, and StudentDepartment tables into the data design view.
3. Create a one-to-many relationship from the Students table to the StudentDepartment table by using the StudentID field in Bold BI
4. Click the Join icon in the data source panel. In the Manage Relationships dialog, click “Add Relationship,” select Students as the primary table and StudentDepartment as the related table. Choose StudentID as the common field and set the cardinality to “One-to-Many.” Then, click Save to apply the relationship.
5. Add another one-to-many relationship from the Departments table to the StudentDepartment table by using the DeptID field.Click the Join icon, select Departments as the primary table and StudentDepartment as the related table, choose DeptID as the common field, set the cardinality to One-to-Many, and save the relationship.
6. These two relationships establish a many-to-many connection between Students and Departments. Click Update to save the configuration.

After setting up relationships between tables, you might need to make changes or remove them as your data model evolves. 

How to edit and delete relationships in Bold BI

Bold BI makes it easy to manage data relationships through the Manage Relationships dialog. Before accessing it, ensure you’ve added the relevant tables to your data source. To access it, click the Join icon.

To edit a relationship, click the Edit icon (pencil) next to its entry, as shown in the following image: 

To delete a relationship, click the Delete icon (trash bin) next to the relationship entry.

Now that you know how to edit and remove existing relationships, let’s take it a step further by learning how to switch between different relationship types when your data model needs a change. 

How to switch off data relationships in Bold BI

When configuring relationships in Bold BI, you may need to exit Relationship Mode or reset your setup. To do these things, you have two options: 

• Remove tables manually: You can delete tables one by one from the design view. 
• Turn off data relation mode: Turn the Data Relation toggle off. This will display the following confirmation pop-up window:

If you click Yes, all tables and relationships will be removed, and the data design view will reset to its initial state. 

If you click No, the pop-up will close, and all existing relationships and tables will remain unchanged. 

This feature is useful when you want to start over or switch back to a normal data view without relationships. For more information, refer to our documentation. 

As you experiment with data relationships, it's helpful to understand how they differ from joins. Knowing this will help you decide when to use each approach for optimal data modeling in Bold BI. 

Relationships vs. joins: Key differences you should know 

Understanding the difference between joins and relationships is key to building clean and reliable data models in Bold BI. 

Aspect	One-to-Many Relationship	Joins
Data integrity	Maintains data integrity through structured linking	May result in duplicate or mismatched records
Duplicate records	Eliminates duplicates by linking related tables	Can produce duplicates if not properly configured
Example: DeptName	Computer Sci, Mathematics, Physics	Computer Sci, Computer Sci, Computer Sci, Mathematics, Physics
Example: Count of DeptID	1.00 for each department	3.00 for Computer Sci, 1.00 for others

As shown in the previous table, relationships offer a more structured and integrity-preserving approach compared to joins, especially when working with large datasets or building scalable dashboards. 

Enhance the power of data visualization in Bold BI with data relationships   

Data relationships are essential for building powerful dashboards in Bold BI^®. They enable users to connect datasets meaningfully, improve performance, and simplify data exploration. By understanding data relationship types and following the configuration steps in this blog, you can unlock deeper insights and create more interactive visual experiences. Explore our Harmonizing Data: The Key to Effective Data Blending and Grow Your Business Effectively Using Data Modeling in Bold BI blogs for detailed insights. 

What are you waiting for? Get started with Bold BI today by signing up for a free trial or requesting a personalized demo to begin creating your own dashboards with confidence and clarity. With simple onboarding guidelines, you are free to explore, connect your data sources, configure relationships, and build interactive dashboards that deliver real-time insights tailored to your business needs.