Methods and systems for designing and building a schema in an on-demand services environment

A method for defining a database schema comprising:

• receiving, at a host machine, user input for a change for a database schema from a client machine in the form of altering a at least one of a plurality of graphical objects element of a graphical representation of the database schema, the host machine including at least a processor system having one or more processors, and a memory system;
• in response to the input, the processor system automatically altering the database schema in response to the input;
• updating, by the host machine, the graphical representation of the database schema to graphically represent the at least one altered graphical object of the database schema;
• sending, by the host machine, rendering information to the client machine for rendering a display of the updated graphical representations of the database schema, the rendering information including at least two lines having graphically different
• a first type of line representing a master-detail relationship between a first database object and a second database object and
• a second type of line representing a lookup relationship between a third database object and a fourth database object, the second database object inheriting at least one usage constraint defined by the first database object and the third database object including at least one field that receives its values from at least one field of the fourth database object.

A method for defining a database schema comprising:

• receiving, at a host machine, user input from a client machine in the form of altering at least one of a plurality of graphical objects of a graphical representation of a database schema, the host machine having one or more processors and a memory system;
• altering the database schema in response to the input;
• updating, by the host machine, the graphical representation of the database schema to graphically represent the at least one altered graphical object of the database schema;
• sending, by the host machine, rendering information to the client machine for rendering a display of the updated graphical representations of the database schema, the rendering information including at least two lines having graphically different appearances, each line connecting at least two of the plurality of graphical objects, a first type of line representing a master-detail relationship between a first database object and a second database object and a second type of line representing a lookup relationship between a third database object and a fourth database object, the second database object inheriting at least one usage constraint defined by the first database object and the third database object including at least one field that receives its values from at least one field of the fourth database object.