Groups and Namespacing
Groups act as namespaces for node names, allowing duplicate entity names across different groups while enforcing uniqueness within each group. Learn how to model multi-database and multi-context scenarios.
When modelling systems that span multiple databases, bounded contexts, or deployment environments, it is common for the same entity name to appear in more than one context. For example, a Customer table might exist in both a CRM database and a Billing database. Groups in NeoArc Studio provide namespace isolation so that these entities can coexist in a single model without ambiguity.
Naming Rules
The following rules govern how node names interact with groups:
| Scenario | Allowed | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| Two ungrouped nodes with the same name | No | Disambiguation dialog is shown |
| Two nodes with the same name in the same group | No | Disambiguation dialog is shown |
| Two nodes with the same name in different groups | Yes | No conflict - groups act as separate namespaces |
| One ungrouped node and one grouped node with the same name | Yes | No conflict - different namespaces |
| Renaming a node to match another in its namespace | No | Disambiguation dialog is shown |
The Disambiguation Dialog
When you create or rename a node to a name that already exists in the same namespace, NeoArc Studio presents a dialog with options to resolve the conflict:
Where Group Context Appears
When nodes share a name across different groups, group context is surfaced throughout the application: