CASE tools for data dictionaries
list gurus,
I am working on contract at a site using IDS(7.3) on Solaris. The customer
has a database design in place. They are just beginning a project to do a
ground up redesign. They are short on DBA expertise(ah, job security).
I am looking for CASE tools for DB design and, more importantly, DB
documentation. I would like to recommend tools that also include entity/table
relationships(i.e. many to one, etc.) with diagrams. I would prefer to find
a Unix based tool to run it on the same platform as the IDS instances.
Naturally there are no current tools and no existing documentation of the
current DB.(why am I not surprised?) I'm looking for more than dbschema.
Any suggestions?
Paul Storm
I would suggest strongly that you invest in a copy of ErWin from Platinum
Technologies.
You will put out about $3500 for the product plus 1 year of maintenance.
The product can either read the output from dbschema, or attach directly to your
database using the Informix Client SDK. Once it reads the schema, it will
generate a very good Entity Relationship Diagram. Further, you can use the
Logical and Physical documentation components of ErWin for full database
documentation.
Finally, for publishing a copy that is "good for the users", get yourself a copy
of Adobe Photo Deluxe Small Business Edition. This product includes a PDF writer
so that you can print a copy of the ERD to a PDF which can be read on virtually
any platform with the appropriate PDF viewer. ** It is important to get the
"Small Business Edition" of this software, as the lower editions do not have the
PDF writer. **
Best of luck.
Paul Storm wrote:
> list gurus,
>
> I am working on contract at a site using IDS(7.3) on Solaris. The customer
> has a database design in place. They are just beginning a project to do a
> ground up redesign. They are short on DBA expertise(ah, job security).
>
> I am looking for CASE tools for DB design and, more importantly, DB
> documentation. I would like to recommend tools that also include entity/table
> relationships(i.e. many to one, etc.) with diagrams. I would prefer to find
> a Unix based tool to run it on the same platform as the IDS instances.
> Naturally there are no current tools and no existing documentation of the
> current DB.(why am I not surprised?) I'm looking for more than dbschema.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Paul Storm
In article <37CB3908.E25B2ED6@iol14.com>, wraper@iol14.com says...
> I would suggest strongly that you invest in a copy of ErWin from Platinum
> Technologies.
I disagree. I found this tool to be the biggest nightmare piece of
software in my life for the long long time. I really don't know where to
start.
> You will put out about $3500 for the product plus 1 year of maintenance.
I agree with this one.
> The product can either read the output from dbschema,
Only on paper. From 9 out of ten Informix schemas with some level of
complexity, it will fail with choice of error messages ranging from ones
that there support never heard about, to the ones that they have no fix
for other then manually commenting out offending parts of schemaa.
> or attach directly to your
> database using the Informix Client SDK.
Not any longer. 3.5.2 and up support only ODBC to Informix.
> Once it reads the schema, it will
> generate a very good Entity Relationship Diagram.
Completely useless jungle of overlayed tables that will take days just to
make visible. And if you intend to infer relationships and/or primary
keys, forget it, it will take days on anything larger then 200 tables,
and it will look hanged, so after you stop rebooting it and it finishes,
you will find on your screen such a nightmare that you will not know
where to begin.
> Further, you can use the
> Logical and Physical documentation components of ErWin for full database
> documentation.
Yes, I suspect you can do that. Since I never managed to do aanything
useful with ERwin, I did not try to document it.
>
> Finally, for publishing a copy that is "good for the users", get yourself a copy
> of Adobe Photo Deluxe Small Business Edition. This product includes a PDF writer
> so that you can print a copy of the ERD to a PDF which can be read on virtually
> any platform with the appropriate PDF viewer. ** It is important to get the
> "Small Business Edition" of this software, as the lower editions do not have the
> PDF writer. **
Hmm, how do you do that? My 'save as' menu don't have anything else then
ERwin formats. Or, do you say that Adobe Photo Deluxe Small Business
Edition can read ERwin files?
Unfortunately, I do not have a better solution to offer you. I just want
to tell you that out there, there is one person that regret his decision
to buy this thing, and that this don't happen to him very often.
At the best, it can be used for prototyping.
> Best of luck.
Yes, I agree with this one too.
Andrej Falout
> Paul Storm wrote:
>
> > list gurus,
> >
> > I am working on contract at a site using IDS(7.3) on Solaris. The customer
> > has a database design in place. They are just beginning a project to do a
> > ground up redesign. They are short on DBA expertise(ah, job security).
> >
> > I am looking for CASE tools for DB design and, more importantly, DB
> > documentation. I would like to recommend tools that also include entity/table
> > relationships(i.e. many to one, etc.) with diagrams. I would prefer to find
> > a Unix based tool to run it on the same platform as the IDS instances.
> > Naturally there are no current tools and no existing documentation of the
> > current DB.(why am I not surprised?) I'm looking for more than dbschema.
> >
> > Any suggestions?
> >
> > Paul Storm
>
>