Relationships

Overview

Relationships in SharpCloud are used to capture and visualise how two items are connected. They form the foundation for understanding structure, dependencies, and interactions within a story, enabling users to move beyond isolated data points and explore how elements influence one another.

The meaning and strength of a relationship can be enhanced through additional properties such as attributes, tags, comments, and direction, allowing relationships to carry both visual and analytical value.

Enhancing Relationships

Relationships can be enriched in several ways to provide more context and clarity:

• Relationship Attributes
  Add structured data (e.g., strength, cost, risk) to define the nature of the connection

• Tags
  Categorise relationships (e.g., scenarios, types) for quick grouping and filtering

• Comments
  Provide descriptive or qualitative context about the relationship

• Direction
  Indicate flow or influence between items (e.g., cause → effect)

These enhancements help transform relationships into meaningful, data-driven connections rather than simple links.

Visualising Relationships

Relationships can be visually customised to improve understanding:

• Thickness can represent magnitude (e.g., strength or importance)

• Colour can represent categories, states, or attribute values

This allows users to quickly interpret complex networks and identify patterns or key connections within a view.

Filtering Relationships

Relationships can be filtered in and out of views based on:

• Attribute values

• Tag selections

Additionally, items themselves can be filtered based on their relationships to other items using Related-To filtering, enabling users to focus on specific networks or dependency chains.

Using Relationships Effectively

Relationships are central to many SharpCloud use cases, including:

• Mapping dependencies between projects or tasks

• Visualising influence, risk, or impact pathways

• Understanding connections across categories or datasets

• Supporting interactive exploration and storytelling

By combining relationships with attributes, tags, and filters, users can uncover deeper insights and present data in a more meaningful way.

Related Articles

Creating and Deleting Relationships

Importing Relationships

Relationship Attributes and Tags

Customising Relationship Appearance

Relationship Click Events

Behaviour on Click & Radial View (Relationship View)